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It seems Australian governments and the Reserve Bank of Australia have taken the game “Monopoly” to heart, instead of the more-considered “The Landlord’s Game” from which the concept of the game had been purloined.

Whereas “The Landlord’s Game” had provided salutary warnings of the ills that landlordism would visit upon societies—instead of seeing land as the common inheritance of humanity for which the rent must be paid—the aim of “Monopoly” is for one person to win out by sending all others in the game broke – with the assistance of the bank.

The game “Monopoly” is fun, of course, but when taken seriously by governments and central bankers, the consequences for their societies are dire.

In “Neoclassical Economics as a Stratagem Against Henry George“, the late great Mason Gaffney provided chapter and verse concerning how the study of economics was corrupted in order to kill off the concept that land rent, being publicly-created, had also to be collected publicly – instead of being privatised and taxing productive work. That the principle carries a significant pedigree has been borne out by many philosophers since the biblical injunction “The land shall not be sold.”

Governments and central banks have taken up playing “Monopoly” with us with gusto, and the game can’t possibly end well. ‘The Bank cannot lose!’