Right, so we decided to get him a copy of regular old grown-up Monopoly for Christmas. It says "Ages 8+" on the box, but he's a highly intelligent, well-adjusted seven year old--or anyway, he knows to cry when he doesn't get his way, so that all seems fine.
BUT--and this was completely my fault--when I went to the store to pick the game up a few weeks ago, I just assumed that the box with Monopoly written on it would be, you know, Monopoly, and not something else. So imagine the horror and disgust I felt when, upon opening it up a couple of days ago*, we found this: 
That's right: it's the UK version! Now I think I'm a pretty cosmopolitan guy, but this rankles for several reasons.
- This is Australia! If they're going to play on a non-standard board, why not Sydney or Melbourne or something? Bowing down before the imperial capital is very 1950s.
- If they're going to do London, why aren't we using pounds? The instructions still refer to the currency as "dollars," but they use this weird
Msymbol instead of $. What the hell? - Come on! Monopoly has got to be the quintessential American board game. It's the apotheosis of unrestrained robber-baron style capitalism--and not some kind of namby-pamby-Smithian-hidden-hand-of-the-market-spontaneously-maximizes-the-public-good capitalism either--no no no! Monopoly is a game of real estate speculation, literal rent seeking. You're supposed to run your competition out of business, drive up prices as high as possible, and impoverish your fellow citizens. You win when the other players lose everything! This is a game inspired by Andrew Carnegie and J. P. Morgan. It would have made Professor of Moral Philosophy Adam Smith physically ill. It belongs in Atlantic City, not London.
* We were in Bali for Christmas, just got back a couple of days ago. Santa filled Tilo's stocking in the hotel, but he had to wait to get home to open his presents.
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