kate_nepveu posted a link to this New Yorker article about the Westing Game which includes this quote from the author:

In her Newbery speech, Raskin said, wryly, that, as she wrote the novel, her “tribute to American labor history ended up a comedy in praise of capitalism.”

And this blew my mind because I have read the Westing Game a lot and that it's meant to be about labor has not crossed my mind ever.

So, some vomiting on the page about that...

Thinking about the connections each of the heirs has to Westing: J. J. Ford, Mr. Hoo, and George Theodorakis all have worker connections to Westing. J. J. Ford's parents were Westing's servants and her father also worked on the railroad. And then Westing, in his magnanimity, paid for her to go to school. Did Westing actually pay any of his employees well enough for them to send their kids to good schools? LOL. Instead, he gives benevolent charity to someone who he deems good enough for it, because that makes him feel good about himself.

Mr. Hoo sues Westing for stealing inventions from him. Now he owns a restaurant (insert joke here about the means of food production) while still inventing.

And I don't remember if George Theodorakis himself actually worked for Westing, but his family did. He was in love with Westing's daughter, and in some better world, he might have been Westing's son-in-law. But despite this serious personal connection, interestingly enough, he's not an heir himself. His sons are, instead. He also now owns a restaurant.

None of them see Westing in any good light at all, the people who were used by him to make his wealth and reputation. J. J. Ford wants to protect whoever "the answer" is, because she knows this isn't some kind of benevolent scheme of Westing's to reward someone, this is a vicious thing to do. She also doesn't take any of his blood money; she signs over her checks to Sandy and then sells her share in Sunset Towers to help Chris.

Sandy claims he was fired by Westing for trying to organize a union. He knows no one has a good connection to Westing or a good opinion of him, so he takes on the persona of yet another person who's life was impacted negatively by having anything at all to do with Westing.

(Irrelevant to this, but relevant to any discussion of Westing's tactics: oh my god he is a total bastard to his wife. "Queen's sacrifice", my ass. He wanted Crow to suffer.) (Crow's life, my god. Grew up poor, dropped out of high school to marry Westing, had one kid, wanted that kid to keep climbing the social ladder and reach for the American dream, her daughter committed suicide, her husband blamed her for it, they got divorced, she dealt with alcoholism, she started a soup kitchen and works as a cleaner, and then her ex-husband creates an entire game to have people blame her for killing Westing, plus tries to frame her for poisoning him as Sandy, all the while using that as a distraction from what the real winning condition is.)

And then you get to the winner. What's Turtle's connection to Westing? She is probably related to him; her mom's connection isn't entirely clear -- both Grace and Eastman reference an uncle/niece relationship but Westing's obituary says no siblings... and Sunset Towers face east -- but it seems like it exists. But the Wexlers aren't connected by doing any work for the Westings or knowing them in the past; even if Grace is related to Westing, she probably never met him. The Wexlers have only been exploited by Westing in him using them for this, and I do really feel like Sandy sees Turtle as the daughter he wishes he had, as a replacement for Violet who has the same interests Westing does, unlike Violet who wanted to be a teacher and didn't want to be in business. (I do find it interesting that, over the course of the game, Turtle gains two bereaved adults who start to parent/mentor her, in replacement for her bioparents, who don't want much to do with her. Turtle wins both money and a new set of parents. Pretty good deal.)

And then it's like, how does Turtle win? Exploitation. All the heirs work together to solve the puzzle, but they don't "win". Turtle wins because Sydelle Pulaski took notes. Turtle wins because she takes the work someone else does, realizes something from it, and then doesn't tell anyone. She uses that knowledge for her own purposes. Without that, Turtle would never have realized that Sandy was alive and that the answer to becoming Westing's heir involved tracking Westing down.

Now, all the heirs do win something, they get the money from playing and get shares in Sunset Towers. So in a sense, they become landowners. But there's no indication that Turtle's passing along her winnings to those whose work she used. (I am not condemning her; she's 13 when she wins and she doesn't start building her fortune until later. But, hey, labor and capital themes.)

In the end, who's mourning for the capitalist? No one other than Turtle. No one has anything good to say about Westing, but they do about Sandy, because he was their friend. Turtle's the one to mourn Eastman, Sandy, and Westing.

It's also worth noting that the newspaper Turtle first goes into Westing House for, the one she is doing this so she can afford a subscription is the Wall Street Journal. The entire plot kicks off because Turtle wants to read the Wall Street Journal.

Also of note: the best stuff Westing accomplishes with his money is giving it away, so other people can use it. The end of the book is all the great stuff other people did because they have money now. It pays for Angela to go to college. Judge Ford selling her share of Sunset Towers pays for Chris to go to college. All these people take this money and use it to improve their lives and the lives of other people. But it takes this "gift" from a rich guy for this to work. And we don't see Turtle using the money for that. She's using the money in the stock market, doing it to make more money, and setting herself up in absolute parallel with Westing, down to playing chess with her niece.

So, hey, tax the rich. It's the only way to prevent overly-complicated fake-inheritance schemes to punish your ex-wife and mentor your niece.