That house she bought is in a neighborhood that was once filled with poor Black people, and Biss writes about the discriminatory forces that led to their displacement. She delves into the roots of the game Monopoly, intended by its creator, Elizabeth Magie, as a way for children to see the injustice of our economic system. “Being had,” as half the title suggests, refers to the author’s reflections on the uncertainty of wage labor.) In sparse, simple prose, Biss tells of her misgivings when purchasing items to furnish her house, and tries to figure out what capitalism is while waiting for her son’s skating lesson. (Biss has experienced her own share of class mobility. Biss begins with a quote from the late anthropologist David Graeber: “If we really want to understand the moral grounds of economic life and, by extension, human life, it seems to me that we must start instead with the very small things.” She uses the very small things-linguistic choices in an IKEA catalogue, syrup bottles, paint colors-to examine her own compliance with a system she suspects to be fundamentally unjust.
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