Toys for the rich
In this dystopian future, the chasm between the haves and the have-nots yawns ever wider, fueled by a relentless tide of inequality and exploitation. Even the simplest pleasures have become tools of oppression, wielded by the wealthy elite to tighten their grip on power and privilege:
In the shadowy realm of fintech, where promises of prosperity and progress once glittered like fool's gold, the reality is far bleaker. Here, products and services designed to help the rich grow richer and the poor sink deeper into poverty are the norm. Mobile payment platforms, once hailed as the great equalizers of the digital age, have become little more than playgrounds for the wealthy elite to amass even greater fortunes.
Take, for instance, the AI-powered wealth management tools that cater exclusively to investors of the upper echelons. These sophisticated chatbots, cloaked in the guise of financial advisors, serve only to further entrench the economic dominance of the privileged few, offering insider knowledge and exclusive opportunities to those already atop the pyramid of wealth.
But perhaps the most insidious manifestation of this disparity lies in the realm of play-to-earn games, where the illusion of opportunity masks a stark reality of exploitation and despair. In these digital arenas, promises of high returns on investment lure unsuspecting students and unemployed individuals into a trap of false hope and financial ruin. While a fortunate few may profit handsomely from their virtual endeavors, the vast majority are left to languish in debt and despair when the crypto market inevitably crashes, leaving shattered dreams and broken lives in its wake.
And yet, even as the gap between rich and poor widens with each passing day, the architects of this future continue to churn out their "toys for the rich," heedless of the suffering and strife they leave in their wake. The promise of progress has been perverted into a cruel joke, and the divide between the haves and the have-nots grows ever wider.
In the opulent chambers of his mansion, Henry Li the millionaire stares at the glowing screen of his AI robo-advisor, seeking guidance on how to amass even greater wealth. With a cold, calculating efficiency, the machine churns out strategies designed to exploit every loophole and manipulate every market, further enriching the already privileged elite.
In the dimly lit confines of his cramped apartment, Nicholas stares blankly at his screen, his heart sinking as the in-game currency of his beloved play-to-earn game crashes, wiping out his hard-earned virtual wealth in an instant. As the digital economy collapses, so too does his hope for financial stability, plunging him deeper into the bleak abyss of poverty and despair. In a world where virtual fortunes can vanish with the click of a button, the line between reality and fantasy blurs, leaving behind a trail of shattered dreams and shattered lives.
Selected Quotes
...[M]y main problem is just the privatization of the solutions...So, for example, instead of fixing [our public transport system], we're just making [apps] like Grab and Uber. Instead of having a unified financial system that you know will work for everybody, we're just gonna make more finance apps, money apps, [etcetera]. Instead of...fixing the standard of education at large, like around around the country, we're just making it more and more [dependent on technology]...I'll just like overlap this for all of [the categories]...the more that technology is used to further an individualistic goal, or...something that is profit-driven, the more we stray away from technology being used to serve us as a society...
[F]or example, I have a project where I create an AI chatbot that the target audience is investors, so it's more of a wealth management thing. So this one as a tool, I'm still working on it as a project but I am like wary about it just because like this type of tool, like, although it's like framed in terms of like educating people. It's an educational tool, it's, it sort of propagates like a rich people get richer kind of thing. So I'd rather like, financially in the fintech space, I'd rather focus my efforts on making money accessible to people who need it. So maybe pessimistically, finance should not be headed into a space that makes upper socioeconomic class monopolize the access to wealth opportunities. Ayun, rather, we should give these opportunities to those that need it more.
I'm just thinking of the crypto bros...you know Axie? That was so bad for Filipinos. Like they were literally advertising Axie as a job to so many Filipinos; students and unemployed people were focusing and dedicating their time in Youtube learning how to make money [in] this...I don't know what's the term called, but these [are] crypto games. And all these promises [that they] would make [a] return of investment is super high. It just brainwashes people, and at the end of the day, people invested too much in Axie. Then someone just hacked it and took all coins or whatever currency. So many people lost their money, and it affected so many livelihoods. Some went broke to the point that they're already homeless, and it's just disheartening to see those kind of cases...So the rise of those play-to-earn games. And there's not only one one eh, I've seen many play-to-earn games out there. It's just scary how Filipinos are being [encouraged] to invest in those kind of schemes.
