The Game of Monopoly:
Lessons on the 2020 CA Ballot Measures
By Larry Frank, Social Justice Activist
Most of us have played the game of Monopoly at some point in our lives. For those in need of a refresher, it is played with two dice to move around a game board, buying and trading properties, and developing them with houses and hotels. Players collect rent on their properties with the goal to drive their opponents into bankruptcy.
This uniquely popular board game that still sells millions of units each year was first created in 1903 by Lizzie Magie, an anti-monopolist according to the Smithsonian magazine, “to teach the 99% about income inequality,” how the rich become richer and the poor poorer. In the 1930’s engineer Charles Darrow took Magie’s unpatented game, reworked the politics and sold it to Parker Bros. A quick search will uncover a fascinating background story, but that is for you to discover.
Today, let’s take the game back to Lizzie Magie’s original progressive intent and explore some of the key decisions that voters will make on ballot measures this November.
YES on California Proposition 16-Affirmative Action
The vote on this measure will determine if we can use affirmative action to address bias in public education, hiring and contracts, or keep in place the ban on affirmative action passed by voters in 1986, Prop 209.
The game of Monopoly as presently conceived implies that anyone can become wealthy based on skill and some luck, whoever you are in this “land of opportunity.” But that is not how financial success works in the real world. For example, what happens if you are invited to join the game by friends or siblings after it has been played for several hours and there are already houses and hotels on all the properties and the railroads and utilities have been monopolized? You will be bankrupt in just a few rolls of the dice.
That is the real-life circumstance that affirmative action seeks to address. The primary way in which families avoid poverty is through intergenerational wealth transfer, i.e., the passing of property (or the financing or co-signing of a first home loan based on that family property) from parents to children. The long legacy of slavery has forced many African-Americans to rent instead of own their home. This situation came about because of “Jim Crow” laws that followed slavery, restrictive or racial covenants on home sales to African-Americans into the middle of last century, and “redlining” even further into last century that put the cost of loans and home insurance out of reach for most in poorer neighborhoods, a legacy that continues to this day. Also, most immigrants start the “game” late and are unable to gather the resources necessary to own property, thus finding themselves mostly unable to transfer sufficient resources and support to their children.
Affirmative action attempts to ensure that existing “systems” do not block people from entering the middle class — through access to public higher education, employment and contracts — just because of the color of their skin, their gender or other characteristics. So, to go back to Monopoly, fairness requires that everyone start the game at the same time, or at least with the same opportunities, which allows a more equal chance to survive and thrive.
Many people think we can solve our economic crises — be it poverty, homelessness, or racism — by fighting for equality, that is, by treating everyone the same. But, everyone starts in very different places and only a fight for equity, a concept that instead focuses on helping everyone get to the same place, can help solve our crises. Affirmative action is a critical tool in allowing more people to engage fairly in our economic system by creating true access and programs for success in public education, hiring, contracts and small business supports.
YES on California Proposition 15-Split-Roll Property Tax
This measure was put on the ballot by a host of non-profits and education unions and is supported by the League of Women Voters, the California PTA, and Labor. It is opposed by business organizations and anti-tax groups. Prop 15 overturns part of a previous proposition: in this case, Prop 13, a rather radical proposal approved by voters in 1978, largely intended to keep grandma and grandpa in their home, according to the ads that supported it. But the largest benefits have gone to major business entities, not your grandparents. Prop 13 basically established a maximum of 1% tax on all real property, residential and commercial, and fixed the assessed value as that established at the point of sale. Prop 15 splits the property tax roll, keeping residential property under Prop 13, and allowing periodic reassessment of certain commercial properties.
Back in 1978, 50% of the property tax burden fell on homeowners and 50% fell on commercial property owners. Today, 70% of the property tax burden falls on residential property owners and only 30% on commercial property owners. The reason for this difference is largely because houses sell more often than businesses and business owners have figured out ways to sell their properties without having them reassessed.
In Monopoly, aggressiveness, skill and luck are the key factors in bringing success. The greatest chance to make money comes from owning hotels, commercial property, and having a monopoly of the four railroads and two utilities is helpful as well. Paying taxes depends on whether you land on the tax square or pick up a bad chance card. In real life, the amount of property taxes paid is determined on when the business purchased the property, with larger and established businesses enjoying a huge advantage as they are not only least likely to change hands but also are the ones with the resources to structure the sales to avoid being reassessed.
The amount of taxation that funds public education and local government, both potential social equalizers, is too low to address our crises of poverty, homelessness and the social divide. California is 38th among the states in our commitment to education, and we need critical additional funding to address homelessness, climate change, the fires and the pandemic. It is important to know that Prop 15 does not touch residential property, but periodically reassesses only commercial property. It also exempts smaller commercial property valued at $3 million or less. California needs the resources to address our biggest problems and Prop 15 is the most critical ballot measure in many years to gather those resources, bringing greater tax fairness and stability in the process.
YES on California Proposition 21-Statewide Rent Control
If there is one lesson that the game of Monopoly teaches, it is that renting a space from someone else puts you on the pathway to bankruptcy. In real life, a full third of renters spend half their income on rent, with some inevitably becoming homeless. According to Monopoly, land ownership and having others rent from you is the path to success and winning the game.
Renters tend to be those who are starting out in life or those without the means to buy. The latter do not yet have the means themselves or in their extended families to jump the renter/owner divide. Given the coming eviction crisis caused by the economic fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing local governments to stabilize rents on more rental properties and limit rent increases in between tenants to further stabilize the rental market seems logical. Passage of Prop 21 is necessary to achieve these goals.
No on California Proposition 22
Uber, Lyft and other app-based transit companies are seeking to overturn legislation (AB5) that requires them to treat their workers as employees, rather than independent contractors. These companies are spending a record $200 million to convince California voters to formalize the informal economy that would require workers to pay their own social security benefits, not receive sick days or vacation and be without many other key worker protections.
What is the connection to Monopoly? These companies are acting like the railroads, utilities and real estate monopolies in the game, and their employees are like the Monopoly players landing on monopolized spaces about to be put out of business. Also put out of business will be their current and future competitors that pay actual wages, as these app-based services continue to expand into new markets.
YES on California Proposition 24 — Consumer Privacy Rights
The state legislature passed a weaker version of this effort to give consumers the ability to prevent their data being mined by the most powerful monopoly forces in America, the dot-coms. And the big internet companies that make huge profits mining our private data are already weakening the state legislation. An individual on a mission to protect consumer privacy funded the signature-gathering to put this issue before the voters. Unfortunately, it does not create a private right of action to sue and instead relies on creating a government entity to sue to protect consumer rights. And it also chooses opt-out language rather than opt-in language when protecting consumers. It is, however, still stronger than the prior version already being watered down, and creates a reasonable process to improve it. Say no to the new monopolies and YES to Prop 24.
YES on California Proposition 25 — Cash Bail
The bail bonds industry put this referendum on Cash Bail on the ballot. The legislature achieved a great success by passing a law to get rid of cash bail last year but the bail bonds companies gathered the signatures to put the new law on hold and place this referendum in front of the voters, spending millions in an attempt to overturn the new law.
Let’s talk about how the criminal justice industry works when someone is arrested. If you want to get out of custody during your trial or while negotiating a result, you are often required to put up bail to secure your return to court. If someone in your family owns a home, that property can be put up as collateral to secure your bond, allowing you to fight your case from outside the jail and not feel pressured to plead guilty in order to save your job or take care of your family. However, because of the lack of intergenerational wealth transfer in certain communities (because of when they “started the game”), a house is often not available to offer as bail collateral. Therefore, without a house in the family, a defendant is required to engage with a bail company to come up with cash for 10% of the amount of the bail and that cash is taken by the bail bonds company, not as collateral, but as payment. These transactions transfer billions of dollars out of poor communities every year.
In Monopoly, you can get sent to jail by either “landing on the jail space” or getting sent there by a Chance card. In real life, a simple look at the connections between race and poverty makes it clear that the frequency of contact with the criminal justice system is not by chance but is built into our society. In the game, you can get out of jail either by obtaining a “Get out of jail free” Chance card, by rolling doubles, or by waiting until your third roll. Is it by chance that in real life some people and not others have a “get out of jail free” card or roll doubles? The time spent in jail is time not spent on the board buying and trading properties to become a winner, falling behind even further. Eliminating cash bail is a critical step in reforming the built-in unfairness of the criminal justice system. But, to be fair, this proposition is a closer call as the new rules that will be used to determine bail under the new proposed “non-cash bail” system carry biases, including those of judges who will have the discretion to interpret the new rules. All told, the game of Monopoly does a pretty good job in illustrating again how the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, which is absolutely true in the existing “cash bail” system, arguing for our support for Prop 25.
Criminal Justice Reform — Propositions 17 & 20 and Measure J
And if you are interested in Criminal Justice Reform, please also vote YES on Prop 17, restoring voting rights for people on Parole, NO on Prop 20, against rolling back hard-won reforms under AB109, and former Props 47 and 55, and YES on L.A. County Measure J, addressing the root causes of homelessness and poverty in our communities.
Finally, check out the history of Monopoly. I believe that Lizzie Magie, the anti-monopolist inventor of Monopoly, would urge us to vote YES on Props 15, 16, 17, 24 and 25, and NO on 20 and 22. And please share Lizzie Magie’s vision for 2020.