Money or Life—An Essay Inspired by Squid Game

Life Dec 28, 2024

Being on the verge of bankruptcy while owing money to many perilous people, you are left with no choice but to follow the orders of a mysterious man in a suit who slapped you at the subway station when you lost against him at Ddakji but clapped and gave you stacks of money when you beat him. Upon calling the number behind the peculiar business card he gave you, you're abducted to an unknown island where you're with 455 other people, tasked to play children's games. These games' winners will receive a prize of 45.6 billion South Korean won. Easy money, you'd think, but that's until you're shot right in the head when you lose the game.

This is the plot of Netflix's hit series Squid Game, following the life of Seung Gi-Hun, a poor man who is left with no choice but to participate in a series of children's games, which, if he wins, will save him from poverty. Obvious spoiler: He ends up winning the 45.6 billion wons and is the only person out of the 456 people to be alive.

On December 26, 2024, season 2 of Squid Game was released. Having no particular work, I finished 7 episodes, averaging 1 hour in two days. From the gory and violent yet thrilling and entertaining season, I understood one thing—there's a dilemma between life and money.

The 456 'players' were kidnapped into the games because they had no other choice. Either they had to try and get some money with the potential risk of killing themselves in the process, or go back to the life they're living and face all the hardships.

The games the players have to play are all dangerous. With each game, around 50-100 players are eliminated. With each player dying, 100 million won is added towards the prize money. So as more and more players were killed, the giant floating piggy bank got fatter and fatter.

After each game, the organisers went a little "democratic," as they gave the players the freedom to vote on whether the games should continue or be terminated. If the majority of players voted for the games to be terminated, the accumulated prize money would be equally distributed amongst them.

But after the first game was over, that is, Red Light Green Light, about 100 players had perished. If the players chose to terminate the games, they'd all walk home with just 70 million won, which for them is a small sum, as some of them are in great debt, coming in billions of wons. They couldn't simply go home with the tiny sum of money they were going to receive.

So what did the players do? They voted for the games to continue right after they were nearly shot in the head for moving a muscle.

This went on as the players voted for the games to continue two more times, especially after they had seen fellow players being ruthlessly gunned down by triangle-masked soldiers in pink jumpsuits. I am not going to go into detail about what happened after the third time the games were voted to proceed, because that'd be a grave spoiler.

What does this help us understand? For some people, money is worth more than life. Some arguments raised in the series were that if you weren't guaranteed to live, why should you focus on the money? By the time of the third vote, each player could walk home with 800 million won. 12 times more than the beginning. But some weren't yet satisfied as the greed to repay their creditors took over them and made them value money above their own lives.

Coming back from the context of Squid Game and being a debtor, life should always be above money. Because without life, money can't be obtained. Sure, money will help you live life, but without life, you won't be able to live. Always remember that you should never reach a point in life where you think money should be valued above yourself.