Welcome to the 32 Dangerous Cheat Codes, a brand new series that will run daily between November 24 and December 25. Join us as we discuss the hazardous ramifications of some of your favorite cheat codes. Today we're swimming in money! From building an airport to zoning for residential area, SimCity lets you do it all. But perhaps the most exciting thing about the game is its free money code. But is there a chance SimCity will lead to an economic crash? Find out now when you discover the newest episode of the 32 Dangerous Cheat Codes.


Everybody wants more money. It's true. From the school teacher barely scraping by to the office worker who hates his job to the billionaire who can afford literally anything his heart desires, everybody wants more. It's human nature, and part of what pushes us forward. So you can imagine how tempting is would be if you had a way to print free money without consequences. I don't mean like a credit card you'll spend the rest of your life paying off, but rather unattached money raining down from the heavens.

This is exactly what you can do in SimCity, the popular mayor simulator that launched with the Super NES. If you're short on cash and still want to build an international airport, then all you need to do is wait until the December tax screen appears, hold down the L button, select "Go With Figures" and then go back to the title screen. Assuming you set all of the dues to 100% and exit the page still holding the L button, you'll suddenly have an influx of $999,999. That should be more than enough to keep the police station and fire department going while Bowser trashes the city.

Of course, if you've played SimCity, you'll already know that this won't be enough money. You'll expand, get into trouble and suddenly feel the need to tap into that money trick once again. And again. In fact, you'll probably just keep doing it until you can't. And that's the problem, both in the game and real life. There's never enough, and you can't solve spending problems by simply getting a bunch of free money. That's a recipe for disaster.

It's also a good way to completely destroy the economy. You can't just print more money and not see it impact the rate of inflation and the prices of everyday goods. A perfect example of this is Zimbabwe, who took the SimCity approach several years ago. At its worst, the country's inflation was doubling every 24 hours, leading to loaves of bread that cost (and I'm not joking here) hundreds of trillions of dollars. It's an untenable scenario that can quickly spiral out of hand. I hate to tell you this, but you really are better off going back to that job you hate.