Have you ever played Monopoly? Of course you have. Everyone’s played it at some time in their life. It’s shared culture, a common element that weaves together our modern world.
But when was the last time you played it? You can’t remember, can you? We’ve all played it sometime, when we were kids; but never recently, and why?
Because it’s crap. It takes ages to play, suffering long action-free periods in which the players endlessly circle the board in search of the streets they need to complete a set, and lacks the interaction between players that we look for in a game. In short, it’s boring and lacks skill.
Except that it isn’t crap. Actually. You just have to play it the way it was designed to be played.
What Is Real Monopoly?
Real Monopoly is Monopoly played according to the actual rules. Now as you read this I can just imagine you shaking your head and saying, “Right… Because getting rid of free parking is so going to revolutionise the game!”
But I’m not talking about the rule changes that everyone knows are house-rules. I’m talking about the rules changes that everyone thinks are part of the original rules. I could waffle on, but it’ll save a lot of your time and my typing if I just present you with the relevant section of the rules:
BUYING PROPERTY…Whenever you land on an unowned property you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price. You receive the Title Deed card showing ownership; place it face up in front of you.
If you do not wish to buy the property, the Banker sells it at auction to the highest bidder. The buyer pays the Bank the amount of the bid in cash and receives the Title Deed card for that property. Any player, including the one who declined the option to buy it at the printed price, may bid. Bidding may start at any price.
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Children wrangling sheep is a pastime that happens at rodeos and cowboy parties you don’t hear about. This is what happens when the sheep fight back.
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A new study claims that for every hour you spend watching TV, your life is shortened by 22 minutes. I am not saying I am skeptical or anything but, if this is true, the current generation of kids out there won’t live beyond 35.
Experts from the University of Queensland, Australia, write: “TV viewing time may have adverse health consequences that rival those of lack of physical activity, obesity and smoking; every single hour of TV viewed may shorten life by as much as 22 minutes.”
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Okay, this is definitely the feel good story of the day. Kudos to the Mercedes F1 team on this one!
Mercedes where so touched by Matthew’s ”intelligent and moving letter” they agreed to help him and teamed up with firm Touch Bionics, who create and fit hi-tech artificial limbs. Together they designed his own customised i-LIMB Pulse – the most advanced prosthetic limb in the world. The hand is so versatile Matthew can grip a pen to draw pictures and write, tie his shoe laces and catch a ball.
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Our leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.
While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.
These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.
Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.
If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot…
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Another way to get at the truth is to make people that they sometimes have to tell a lie. A toss of the dice allows people to confess things on surveys that they otherwise wouldn’t. When South Africa wanted to conduct a survey about whether or not farmers had killed leopards (an illegal practice), the surveyors brought along a die.
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