What Squid Game Says About Capitalism

How to survive the game of life

Created by the author

The writer of the hit Netflix series Squid Game, Hwang Dong-hyuk, was quite open about his critique of modern capitalism. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said:

“Well, these days we are, in fact, living in a deeply unfair and economically challenging world. Especially after the pandemic. I mean, there is more inequality, more severe competition and more people are being pushed to the edge of their livelihoods. … More than anything else, that’s probably why the series was such a big success worldwide.” — Hwang Dong-hyuk

The reaction on the internet went pretty much as expected. Medium writer Alex Mell-Taylor called out how crippling debt has made life precarious for many people. Conversely, right-wing sensation Ben Shapiro described Squid Game’s view of capitalism as “silly;” capitalism is not a zero-sum game.

My favorite take on Squid Game came from the Youtuber MatPat of the channel Film Theory. He presented a video offering strategies on how to survive (and profit from) the death games.

While MatPat probably had intended his video to be a fun thought experiment, I found his take surprisingly educational about the present world. The nature of the death games is quite analogous to modern-day capitalism. His…