You may have heard rumors of a “Monopoly: Socialism” echoing in the halls of the Twitterverse this week. Well, folks, it’s no joke. Hasbro has indeed created such an iteration of its iconic game, which mocks the economic system for its intellectual and moral bankruptcy.
“This adult party edition of the Monopoly game has players moving around the board contributing to community projects … unless they can steal projects to get ahead,” reads the product description on Amazon. “Contribute to the Community Fund … unless you choose to deplete it. Consider the best interest of the group … unless you want to forget that and just do what you need to do.”
“In the ‘Monopoly: Socialism’ game, players move around the board working together to make a better community by managing and contributing to projects such as a no-tip vegan restaurant, an all-winners school, or a museum of co-creation,” the description continues. “But nobody said that cooperation is easy! You’ll have issues with your neighbors, your DIY community projects go awry, you’re constantly voting to shake things up, and there’s always an emergency that requires dipping into the Community Fund! Contribute all 10 of your chips to win the game, unless the Community Fund runs out of money and everyone loses. So much for a socialist utopia.”
According to CNN, players who pass go are given a $50 “living wage” instead of the standard $200.
Needless to say, leftists have not exactly embraced Hasbro’s parody of their beloved economic system. Nick Kapur, an assistant professor of history at Rutgers University, denounced it on Twitter as a “woefully ill-informed” board game full of “mean-spirited” attacks.
“Obviously, there are critiques of socialism and people can say maybe the market is better at delivering certain types of services than the government,” Kapur told CNN. “But this game didn’t seem to be talking in those terms at all, it just seemed to be saying that ‘Socialism is bad, it makes you poor, you gotta give your money away constantly.'”
Released in 2018, the game surprisingly flew under the radar until Kapur’s tweet went viral, racking up 40,000 likes and nearly 15,000 shares, according to the New York Post.
“Snarkily mocks concepts that are actually helpful to society,” said one reviewer on Amazon. “Supposed to be ‘funny’ I guess? Interesting that the underlying message is that capitalism is great, and yet the manufacturers produced such a shoddy product.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had his own take on the game. “We could do the Venezuela edition: start out (in 1950) with the 4th highest GDP per capital in the world: end starving in the street with massive shortages of food & medicine,” he tweeted.
“Wah, wah, wah. Maybe they’re making fun of socialism because it’s bad,” said Fox News commentator Kat Timpf on “Fox & Friends.”
Hasbro has waded into political waters before with the iconic board game. In November of last year, the company released “Monopoly for Millennials,” which satirized said generation’s penchant for spending too much money on experiences.
“Collect Experience points by visiting the hottest Destinations,” read the description on Amazon. “IT’S ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE: In this version of the Monopoly game, the player who collects the most Experience — not the most money — wins the game.”
