![]() “I think there is still a vibrant world of independent, community-oriented bookstores in the U.S. However, bookstores managed to make a comeback thanks to their ability to build communities with their customers and ability to curate strong selections, according to the Forbes article. Just five years after Amazon began selling books in 1995, the number of independent bookstores dropped by 43%, an article in Forbes explains. Such was the fate of many small local bookstores, too, with stores like Amazon and Barnes & Noble taking much of their business away. It also happens that Green’s father owned a small grocery store in Tennessee – but, like many such stores, it was put out of business by the rise of Piggly Wiggly. “That marked a big change in American life.” “Customers would be aware of brands like Oreo cookies or Campbell’s soup,” he added. Piggly Wiggly, Green explained, was the beginning of today’s idea of a supermarket, where customers pick their own food instead of the grocer picking it out for them. We’ve often had these corporations and their leaders take on a kind of outsized role in political and social and economic discourse.” “I wanted to find a way to write about how we are now living again in a moment where these kinds of individual founder figures are really held up as paragons of a value system,” Green told Reset. The grocery chain Piggly Wiggly may not have any stores in the Chicago area, but its rise and fall parallel some Big Tech - which also happens to coincide with what happened to the local bookstores Green loved so much during his time in the city. Sounds different from the rules of the game that were eventually adopted, right? Big Tech, Piggly Wiggly and local bookstores in Chicago Those who ran out of money were sent to the Poor House, with only those trespassing on land being sent to jail. Players performed labor to earn their wages. But there were also squares players could land on to receive necessities like bread, water, shelter and light. Her game – much like the version we know today – featured deeds and properties that could be bought and sold using play money, a jail, a public park and a poor house. In this case, the original idea behind Monopoly came from a progressive woman in 1903 named Elizabeth Magie, who wanted a board game that reflected her political values.Īccording to an article in The Guardian, Magie was deeply concerned about the problems of the new century, including income inequality and the rise of huge monopolies. “I wanted to tell that story in the book as an example of how we have an economic system that does a fairly good job of capturing the value that’s created, but it is also often captured not by the people who create it,” Green said. Green points out the game not only takes on capitalism but was “essentially stolen” by its purported inventor, Charles Darrow. I wanted to pay a more careful and sustained kind of attention.” Why all the hate for Monopoly? “Amid COVID and everything, I wanted to understand my way of looking at the world. “I was trying to write about my way of looking at the world,” Green said in a recent conversation with WBEZ’s Reset. Think big tech or living in a certain place – like Chicago, where Green spent several years – or through a major historic event like the COVID-19 pandemic. ![]() The idea is to connect seemingly random subjects with Green’s thoughts on humans’ impact on themselves and on the planet. For example, he discusses his thoughts on the board game Monopoly (two stars) and the famous Icelandic hot dog stand (five stars). In other essays, Green reviews various topics on a five-star scale. The author draws on some of his most personal experiences for some of the book’s essays, such as living through the COVID-19 pandemic and his experience with bullying in school.
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