Is it such a good idea to perpetuate the idea that creating bigger businesses is usually best, that greed is good and that one can be rewarded handsomely by creating monopolies as a desired path to gaining power and control over others?

What kind of society promotes a game generation after generation that basically teaches children and some adults that it is “fun and entertaining” to bankrupt your friends and family members! Perhaps the game should be banned in the name of common sense and decency towards fellow human beings.

On the other hand in some ways one could say that the game is a wonderful learning tool, it teaches children how to count and horde money. How the banking system works and how to mortgage your house and property. The game Monopoly clearly illustrates and promotes the economic concept that it is good business practice and a worthy goal of individuals or business to create monopolies, run others out of business, and totally dominate markets eliminating all competition.

Other lessons learned in the game could be that Monopoly does a good job of forcing players to pay taxes from time to time, while that revenue does nothing to enhance the quality of life of the players.

Also the game has Chance and Community Chest cards that send players to jail for not doing anything illegal or wrong, just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

In addition there is only one central bank, and there are rules to keep out competition by not allowing players to lend money to other players.

It is interesting to note that the game was banned in both Communist Russia and Cuba, where it could have done the most good perhaps illustrating the flaws in capitalism and that bad things happen to almost all the players except the one that creates and controls the most monopolies.

A suggestion for house rules might include teaching something good about charity or compassion and perhaps implementing catch-up features for those that have through no fault of their own experienced a unlucky roll of the dice.

Also worth a thought is how much fun is a game and what benefits are there for society where in the end you only get to play with yourself?

“The danger is that global warming may become self-sustaining, if it has not done so already. The melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps reduces the fraction of solar energy reflected back into space, and so increases the temperature further. Climate change may kill off the Amazon and other rain forests, and so eliminate once one of the main ways in which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. The rise in sea temperature may trigger the release of large quantities of carbon dioxide, trapped as hydrides on the ocean floor. Both these phenomena would increase the greenhouse effect, and so global warming further. We have to reverse global warming urgently, if we still can.”

Some of my favourites from a variety of sources

The state of Vermont makes attempt to overturn Citizens United decision

According to Bernie Sanders “The people of Vermont and across America are totally disgusted with the huge amounts of money that billionaires and corporations are now throwing into the political process as a result of that misguided decision.”

Voters in 64 Vermont communities have spoken out against the the controversial 2010 Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission court ruling.

The Vermont Senate resolution asks Congress to consider an amendment to clarify that “money is not speech and corporations are not persons under the U.S. Constitution.”

A constitutional amendment to reverse the Supreme Court’s ‘Citizens United’ decision and it make possible for possible for Congress to limit election-related expenditures by for-profit corporations, nonprofits, unions and individuals could easily take years.

Other groups such as The Eleventh Amendment Movement (TEAM), a non-partisan political action association based in Hawaii, don’t want to wait that long to stop corporate influence in US politics. The group is making the claim that the US Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to hear a current Montana case, due to the the Eleventh Amendment of the Constitution. The Eleventh Amendment was adopted in 1793 and has been used to overrule the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions based on individual state’s sovereign immunity. If they are successful it may immediately result in an effective reversal of the Citizens United ruling in some states.

Perhaps it is also time to try something new?