Monopoly's a pretty cutthroat game

As I played it with my eight and fifteen year olds. My 8 tried to sell me the 'get out of jail free card' for $100. My 15 wanted $250; I couldn't afford to buy houses or hotels. I turned one down.

I felt the indictment of the economy, wondering where my sixteen years of education would leave my daughters. They already have sixteen years together, at the ends of third and ninth grades.

My 84 year old mother asked, 'Does this game ever end?' And that was the point: This game of life does not end, until someone goes bankrupt, or you wind up paying exorbitant prices for landing on properties with hotels on them.