Your friend gets to play using the normal rules. He starts the game with $1,500 in cash, and, every time he passes "Go," he gets $200. He uses two dice to move around the board.
You, however, only get $300 at the start of the game, and you get just $50 every time you pass "Go." You use one die to move around the board.
The two of you play for an hour or so. At that point, your friend has accumulated many properties, built several houses, and has over a thousand in cash.
You, however, are not doing so well. You have no houses, just two properties (and one is mortgaged to pay for last turn's rent), and your cash is $60.
You then proclaim that the game isn't fair. Your friend agrees. The two of you both start getting $200 every time you pass "Go" and you both use two dice to move around the board.
How long do you think it will take you to even up the game? Or will your friend continue to benefit from the lead he built based on the advantages he had for so long?
That, in a greatly simplified nutshell, is the economics of systemic inequality.
And whether that inequality is based on race or gender or sexuality or religion or some other factor, the effects of long-term, inherited disadvantages perpetuated over generations cannot suddenly be erased simply by giving everyone access to the same rules.
You, however, only get $300 at the start of the game, and you get just $50 every time you pass "Go." You use one die to move around the board.
The two of you play for an hour or so. At that point, your friend has accumulated many properties, built several houses, and has over a thousand in cash.
You, however, are not doing so well. You have no houses, just two properties (and one is mortgaged to pay for last turn's rent), and your cash is $60.
You then proclaim that the game isn't fair. Your friend agrees. The two of you both start getting $200 every time you pass "Go" and you both use two dice to move around the board.
How long do you think it will take you to even up the game? Or will your friend continue to benefit from the lead he built based on the advantages he had for so long?
That, in a greatly simplified nutshell, is the economics of systemic inequality.
And whether that inequality is based on race or gender or sexuality or religion or some other factor, the effects of long-term, inherited disadvantages perpetuated over generations cannot suddenly be erased simply by giving everyone access to the same rules.
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| begin to play a game of Monopoly |
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