Get the most Power by getting the most Money by using Time most efficiently as your travel through Space and you’ll probably win Plutocracy. You get control by old-fashioned bribery (along with a bonus based on what you have in your inventory if you pay timely visits to Mother Earth) and you get money from carefully planning space flights to maximize commercial opportunities across the five productive outer planets (Mars through Neptune). The Tagline for the game is “Space is Time is Money is Power” and that does a pretty good job of summarizing what Plutocracy turns out to be: a fancy Pick-up-and-Deliver game with some interesting wrinkles.Įach player represents an interplanetary corporation headquartered on the planets beyond Earth’s orbit, each vying to control the Plutocratic Council (“The PC”) on Pluto. Games with zero luck in them tend to be dry and themeless-think Chess as the Urspiel here-but from the moment you open the box, Plutocracy’s board (a colorful solar system on the black background of deep space) makes the game pop with intrigue: ooh, what is this game? Gameplay Overview The game features no chance whatsoever-no dice, no cards, etc…-the closest you can get to the luck of the draw is if you choose the optional starting conditions that randomize prices and players’ starting planets. Plutocracy takes things one step further, eliminating all luck. When I reviewed Khora, I lauded how nicely that game provided you with a way to buy your way out of bad dice luck. In fact, wages for average Americans continued to grow at a healthy rate right up until (surprise!) Reagan.Euro games stand out from more pedestrian board games because Euros tend to have a lot less luck involved, and even when Euros do feature luck, they usually offer some way to hedge against a bad outcome. The middle class grew steadily, along with GDP, after the New Deal, and continued to grow after the Great Society. They assign blame to high taxes and large government, but the facts - the data - point in a very different direction. You may be a rightist, Hanoch, but if you said you were a Tea Party member I’d be a little surprised, because Tea Party members at least tend to be keenly aware of the erosion of the American middle class in recent decades. (We are also better off materially than we were in 1320, or 20 B.C.E.–thanks no doubt to the entrepreneurial spirit of Americans like yourself.) The years 18, which you mention, are outside the purview of his discussion. You haven’t addressed the specific issues - much less faced the facts - presented by Moyers in his speech. While everyone is making reading recommendations, Hanoch, I wonder whether you have even read the piece in question. It is fascinating that those who decry the wealth and power of the capitalist are all too willing to arrogate more and more wealth and power to a centralized government with ever-expanding control over the lives of individuals. Unfortunately, these obvious facts are irrelevant to leftists such as Zinn and Moyers who are primarily motivated by their animus toward the wealthy, and not the overall welfare of the average citizen. This is all the product of free markets and the ability of individuals in this country to enjoy the rewards of their success. Consider what the average citizen takes completely for granted today that even the wealthy of 100 years ago could not imagine. citizen lives like a king compared to the wealthy in the U.S. is materially better off than virtually any place on earth. One need only consider the tremendous developments in technology and pharmaceuticals which have improved the average citizen’s life immeasurably. When those entrepreneurs succeed, everyone benefits. The average citizen’s material well-being has been greatly improved due to the willingness of entrepreneurs throughout the history of this country to take risks to develop products and services that make life better. The “the rich get richer at the expense of the average citizen”? I think you have it backwards.
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