Obligatory reminder: Monopoly is deliberately intended to be un-fun because it was designed by Georgists to teach about the evils of rentiership and land-hoarding.
The square that is today labeled “collect $200 salary as you pass” was originally labeled “Labor applied to Land produces Wages.”
What if I told you locking people up for rolling doubles three times does nothing to discourage the next player from doing it?
It never did. The point of the prison industrial complex is not to stop professional criminals but to deter the working class from making too much of a stink. This is also why prisons have to be squalid, inhumane places invested with bugs and where abuses by the guards are routine.
That’s also why the judicial system is rigged to favor convictions and sentencing is disproportionately egregious for most crimes (e.g. possession).
I think it is closer to the current state of American welfare where you get very little money on the condition that you continue to try the game (go around the board and pass go) while all along, rich players and the ge.itself try to collect rent and taxes that just don’t have. Nevermind the ever present threat of being sent to jail.
I would argue it’s more of an example of a yearly wage but ok
How is it equivalent to a wage? You don’t do any work to earn it, you simply have to pass go. Unless every player is a real estate agent whose boss makes them complete a stupid foot race to get their pay?
Side note, because I can’t be bothered writing a top-level comment too: Up until the more recent games that use the million scale, it’s always been $200, ever since 1935 (patent date). In today’s money, that’s $4,586, which honestly would be a good place to start for a monthly UBI in my opinion.
Edit: Oops, double posted, apologies.
I mean your literal job for players is to buy, sell, or rent real estate. That’s exactly what all players are doing. So it stands to reason that you would be paid a salary for this work. This is also peak capitalism in the 1930s. Ubi wasn’t even a glimmer of a thought in anyone’s eye.
If that was the case you wouldn’t earn money from the real estate since it isn’t yours