The Squid Game TV Series and the Economics of Debt

Publisher: Social Science Research Network

Abstract:

The Squid Game TV series (SGTV) premiered on Netflix in September 2021 has become a global sensation. Its alignment with modern economic realities, in particular, the impacts of debt, generated many blogs and opinion pieces. This paper offers an evaluation of SGTV and identifies that the series provides a depiction of the economic realities at a truly deeper level, unusual in TV series and movies. Its depiction of the interactions of economic and non-economic motives, and the roles played by debt are aligned with what can be observed in the real world. The series was very successful as a piece of entertainment, but it actually offers far more than that. Hence, the series is not just to be enjoyed and later to be forgotten, as happened to many successful entertainments. Rather deliberation is needed on the nature of human realities shown there and the solutions offered.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4154715

Source: Manual