Squid Game: The Deadly Playground of Capitalism

By Yasmine Nour

The second season of the much-anticipated Netflix series Squid Game was recently released, building on the success of the first season. The show revolves around deadly games played by a selected group of working-class and unemployed individuals. The series’ popularity comes as no surprise, as it speaks directly to the growing precarity of the working class, particularly among the young. The success of this South Korean series lies in its engagement with real socioeconomic issues, pushing the two major classes—the proletariat and the job-seeking population on one hand, and the capitalists on the other—to an extreme.

The capitalists are represented by the men behind the show, who fund and manage the game, under the leadership of the Front Man. The participants, mostly indebted young people, willingly sacrifice their lives for the promise of a financial reward. Over seven days, they are gathered on a secret island in South Korea to play these deadly games. In season one, the capitalists are shown to fly in to watch only the final two of the seven games, when only a few participants who survived the previous rounds are left. In one particularly tense game, they must cross a bridge made of glass tiles suspended high above the ground. Each row of glass tiles includes one tile that will shatter under pressure, forcing participants to either fall to their death or continue forward. The capitalists, watching from behind sealed glass, are shown to be enthusiastic spectators of this grotesque spectacle.

The conflict between the capitalists, who control wealth and power, and the proletariat, who are forced to sell their labor for survival, is stark. The show highlights the brutal side of the capitalist system, imagining an extreme scenario in which human values and survival instincts are tested under the harshest conditions.

Capitalists, represented by the rich men flying in from presumably the industrialized Global North (like the United States), pay to watch a game in which human lives become mere entertainment. The indebted people, carefully selected by a wealthy Korean man and supported by the Front Man, participate voluntarily in the deadly game. They risk their lives for money they desperately need to support their families and pay off their debts.

While the first season focused on the game itself, introducing the viewer to its rules and deadly nature, and concluded with Seong Gi-hun (the protagonist) as the sole survivor, the second season explores the democratic illusion embedded in the game, resembling the functioning of capitalism. The show underscores a central dynamic in capitalist systems: the extraction of surplus value through labor. Under the guise of laws, democracy, and work contracts, humans in capitalist societies are compelled to sell their labor power to fuel economic growth. Marx’s analysis of capitalism in Capital provides an insightful lens to understand the systemic exploitation depicted in the show.

In his seminal work, Karl Marx details the appalling conditions faced by workers in the birthplace of modern capitalism: the textile industry in 19th-century England. Marx illustrates how labor was extracted under extreme, dehumanizing conditions, particularly for women and children. He writes:

In the textile industry, in which the work is both highly monotonous and physically exhausting, the factory workers, especially women and children, were subjected to unbearable working conditions. The rooms in which they worked were often badly ventilated, dark, and damp, with poor hygiene. The capitalist class, driven by the goal of maximizing profits, had no interest in improving the working conditions for the workers. Their health was sacrificed in the name of profit.
(Capital, Chapter 10, Section 3)

To force people into such labor, peasants were forced off their lands to sell their labor. Marx observes that “the process of transformation, by which the agricultural population is expropriated from the land, is the most important phase of the historical process. This expropriation… has led to the formation of a new class of wage laborers, the proletariat, who are forced to sell their labor power to the capitalist class in exchange for their means of subsistence. The peasants, driven off the land by the enclosures, were turned into proletarians who had no choice but to sell their labor to the capitalists. This process was not a peaceful one; it involved the violent dispossession of peasants from the land and the destruction of their means of production.”
(Capital, Chapter 27)

To force people to work, even begging was criminalized, and poverty was turned into a crime. Marx writes:

The law of property… also found it necessary to subject the poor to the discipline of work. Begging was made illegal, and the poor were thus compelled to sell their labor power. The law prohibited begging, and the poor were forced to sell their labor to the capitalists under conditions of extreme exploitation. The state, by punishing begging, sought to create a reserve army of labor—people who could be compelled to work for the capitalists at any price.
(Capital, Volume 1, Chapter 26)

This brutal system of forcing people into labor, with little choice or agency, is mirrored in Squid Game, where participants, driven by desperation, are lured into playing deadly games for a chance at wealth. The tension between voluntary participation and coercion is a key theme. In season two, participants are given the opportunity to vote after each game, deciding whether they want to continue. After witnessing the deaths of their fellow contestants, many choose to keep playing, trapped by their need for money, despite the obvious dangers. This “democratic” process acts as a ritual that renews the illusion of consent. In contrast to the first season, where participants only had one vote after the first game, the second season gives them the illusion of more control, yet their choices are still constrained by economic necessity.

This democratic illusion reinforces the power dynamics between the capitalists and the players. The Front Man, a figurehead in the game, insists that the participants are “free” to choose their fate. However, it is clear to the audience that they are coerced by their financial ruin and desperation.

In the series, the protagonist, Gi-hun, rejects the internal conflicts among the participants and mobilizes a few others to fight back against the armed guards. While this effort ultimately fails, it introduces a critical perspective on how people, instead of uniting to resist the forces exploiting them, are often made to fight among themselves.

The character-building in Squid Game mirrors the complex dynamics between participants and the game managers, who disguise their exploitation under a democratic facade. This reflects the real-world tensions under capitalism, where the wealthiest few control vast resources, while the rest of society is forced to accept exploitative conditions.

Though Squid Game is a work of fiction, it raises important questions about why people accept such brutal and exploitative working conditions. It explains, in a way, how individuals are coerced into believing that they can “win” or “escape” through individual efforts, especially under the illusion of democracy and freedom. In the real world, workers everywhere are often forced to accept meager wages, poor working conditions, and delayed retirement, all while believing that they might change their fate through democratic rituals.

Looking around us today, it’s clear that workers everywhere are being forced into similar conditions. They receive meager wages, are pushed to work as long as possible, and face delayed retirements—yet are told they can still “make it” through democratic rituals. They are led to believe they might save themselves individually, through their vote, rather than through active participation in larger social movements. This mirrors how Squid Game shows the tension between the illusion of choice and the harsh reality of exploitation.

Take, for example, the ongoing violence against Palestinians by Israel. Israel claims it has killed over 45,000 Palestinians since Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, justifying these actions as self-defense under the guise of law and its so-called right to protect itself from terrorism. In reality, however, this use of law, with the backing of imperialist powers, serves to maintain Israel’s dominance in the region and secure its access to vital resources for global capitalist interests.

What’s particularly chilling is that we are witnessing what can only be described as genocide in the 21st century, a genocide that plays out on social media in real time. Unlike in the Holocaust, where the world was left questioning whether such horrors were really happening, today’s footage leaves little room for doubt. This raises a crucial question: why are ordinary people around the world tolerating the massacre of fellow human beings?

Though solidarity movements for Palestine have erupted globally, especially in the Global North, they have yet to pressure major arms-exporting countries like the United States and Germany to stop their support of Israel’s actions. This echoes the dynamics seen in Squid Game. Rather than uniting against those who set the rules of the game—the capitalist powers that enforce oppressive labor conditions and drive resource scarcity—individuals turn against each other. At the same time, the illusion of democracy and choice is reinforced through voting rituals, which perpetuate the belief that their personal survival is possible in a system that is fundamentally stacked against them.

I urge those who haven’t yet watched Squid Game to do so. The series starkly reflects our personal lives and the current state of capitalism, where survival is sold as a game and the power structures that govern us are rarely challenged.