Monopoly vs. Life

This political cartoon demonstrates two very clear and very wrong beliefs of Obama and liberals.



Major fallacy one) Regardless of the life choices a person makes given equal opportunity if everybody doesn't end up with the same results it isn't fair, and it's the governments job to redistribute the limited wealth available. In Monopoly everybody is given the same opportunities, there is some chance, but overall the decisions a person makes determines who has the most in the end.

Major Fallacy Two) Unlike Monopoly, life is not a zero sum game. Wealth can and is created by the value that individuals add to the capital they have. One person become wealthy is not at the expense of another. If a person is industrious, they can take dirt and water and heat and create something far more valuable than what they started with. A potter using simple inexpensive materials, time and talent creates value and wealth.



Zane Kuhle, the creator of this vase in no way cheats or forces his fellow man to pay him for his efforts, others are willing to take their capital and give it to him in exchange for his work. Thus by taking a few dollars of basic materials, the creator of that vase created a logarithmic increase in wealth.

Monopoly and life are similar in some ways:

Like Monopoly, everybody starts Life with exactly the same resource – time.

Like Monopoly, luck plays a role in Life- parents and their accumulated wealth, genetics, right time and place, all affect the final outcome.

Like Monopoly, risk plays a role in Life - choices to play it safe or risk your capital for future gain. In Monopoly you have choices like “do I buy Park Place and risk most of my capital hoping to land on Boardwalk, or save my capital for less profitable but more secure properties with higher chances of return.” In life you have choices like “do I practice sports as hard as I can and risk most of my study time hoping to land in professional sports, or do I invest my time for study to enter a less profitable but more secure employment market with higher chances of return?”

Life is unlike the game of Monopoly where nobody is allowed to create anything new or add value to any capital they have. The liberal mindset that there is only so much wealth and thus must be re-distributed in order to be fair is a fallacy they use to try and control others; it ignores the reality that the USA and most of its wealth was created from the free exchange of capital and work of the people, and that the individual decisions people make about what to do with what they have, determines how and where capital created and traded. Some luck is involved and natural talent helps, but overall those who take what they have and add more value to it create for themselves more wealth, and those who choose to waste what they have do not gather wealth.