NBC’s Parks and Recreation is one of the most perfect shows ever created. Every time I rewatch the series—which happens more than I care to admit—it just gets better. Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) brings her small-town community together to create a better town for everyone. They may not love her feisty spirit, feminist ideals, or pro-government stance, but they all end up seeing things her way, eventually.
Leslie believes (correctly) that the government should work for the people by providing community services. The spirit of the entire show eschews capitalist greed and focuses more on how properly funded programs can benefit the people. With this in mind, I was a little surprised by NBC’s choice to use the show in a new version of the capitalism-based board game, Monopoly. Ron Swanson might be all about this, but would Leslie want Pawnee turned into a land developer’s dream?
Monopoly’s progressive roots
Monopoly is one of those games that people both love and hate. We always think it is a good idea to play with friends or family. Then on the third or fourth go around the board, things start to get brutal. Players start with the same amount of cash, and they then choose what land they want to purchase and later build houses or hotels on. There are also those pesky tax spaces or events in the community chest cards that may redistribute money amongst the players. Usually, one player starts getting all the money from everyone else, and then they are the only ones having fun. It’s an analogy of how capitalistic economies work.
As much as Monopoly may push the capitalism narrative with the modern set of rules, the game was originally intended to buck the system. In 1903, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Magie applied for a patent on the board game she called The Landlord’s Game. It was the original version of Monopoly. Magie created the game to show how Georgism economics worked to redistribute wealth in America. The game demonstrated how landlords hoard wealth while renters never break the cycle of paying rent—funny how, one hundred and twenty years later, this is still a problem. The original Monopoly had two sets of rules. One had the winner-take-all monopolies we know today, and the other set of rules reflected Georgism, where a land tax created a more equalitarian economy.
Maybe the version of Monopoly we are most familiar with doesn’t fit the Leslie Knope ideal. But somehow, the original version of the game may have been something she would have got behind. Also, the playable pieces include a stack of waffles and a replica of Lil Sebastian, so Leslie would definitely play the Parks and Rec Monopoly game for at least one round.
(featured image: NBC)
