The Platform: The Economics Decoded

With the onset of lockdown, more and more of us are turning towards over-the-top media services to keep ourselves entertained. In February 2020, Netflix released the nail biting and very disturbing thriller/horror feature ‘The Platform’, following its debut in the Toronto Film Festival. Most viewers gather that the movie is an allegory of capitalism and the class system. It heeds attention to the increasing social fragility of our social pyramid and class warfare. While it shows capitalism in the most extreme form to prove their argument, it gives bone chills and some food for thought.

The film is set in a dystopian, futuristic prison where cells (which are randomly assigned each month) are stacked on top of one another with a common hole in between, thereby also known as ‘The Hole’. Each level has two cellmates and each person is allowed one personal item with them. A luxurious banquet of lavish food prepared by an army of chefs descends everyday on a large concrete platform. The food that gets sent from the top has enough to feed the entire prison if all the prisoners ration and take only what they need. However, lower the cell, lesser the food or might well call them “scraps” which makes the prisoners resort to violence and murder in desperation while the people at higher levels ridiculously overindulge in insane amount of food.

The movie reflects the chilling dark side of capitalism which becomes more disturbing amid the coronavirus pandemic. Even more disturbing is the similarity between the recent news of North Koreans ordered by Kim Jong-un to hand over pet dogs for meat amid food shortages and the butcher of one of the character’s ‘only personal item’, is dog for food in the film.

THEORIES AT WORK

Tragedy of the Commons

An economic problem where every individual has an incentive to consume a resource at the expense of every other individual with no way of excluding anyone from consuming the same. This results in overconsumption (by cellmates on the higher levels), under investment (prisoners do not keep in mind that why they are on the lower levels, they won’t have food and would be treated the same way they treat others) and eventually depletion of a common pool resource. For a tragedy of the commons to occur, the resource must be scarce, rivalrous in consumption-means when someone consumes it, it is no longer available for others to consume- and non-excludable (the banquet of food). The solution to the tragedy of commons includes the development of a collective action agreement.

Game Theory-Prisoner’s Dilemma

Applying Nash Equilibrium to the famous game of Prisoner’s Dilemma, it is a paradox showing that two rational individuals may not cooperate even when they have an individual benefit to do so. Suppose two members of the same gang are accused of a heist. To prevent collusion between the accused, they are isolated from each other and are given two options: betray the other by defect and testifying that the other committed the crime, or to cooperate with the other and maintain silence.

The possible outcomes can be represented by the following matrix:

If Prisoner 2 cooperates, it is in Prisoner 1’s interest to defect. And if Prisoner 2 defects, then too, it will be in Prisoner 1’s interest to defect. Here, for one prisoner, betraying is preferred to cooperation, regardless of the choice the other makes. Therefore, defection is the dominant strategy. Even though both prisoners can reduce their jail time by cooperating, the individual incentive structure is built in a way that cooperation seems the irrational move. The prisoner’s dilemma clearly shows that group rationality-what is best for the group/society, is not always equal to what is best for each individual. This gap between group rationality and individual rationality is very important. However, The Platform makes us wonder whether this statement is really true. When the tables turn, group rationality seems to be more appealing. However, the cycle of blunder does not come to an end.

Veil of Ignorance

In his 1971 book ‘Theory of Justice’, Philosopher John Rawls carried out this experiment. Even though it can never be carried out in the literal sense, its purpose is to explore ideas about justice, morality, equality and social status.

Behind the Veil, no one has a clue about who they are. They are not aware of their natural abilities, class, privileges, their disadvantages or even their personality. They are given the task to design a new society with their conception of justice.

As people behind the Veil do not know who they are, the policies they formulate might benefit them or harm them. Behind the Veil, cognitive biases fade away. With the stress of not knowing who you are, people tend to make choices in favor of preservation of the entire group.

This experiment might make one wonder how it was not successful in The Platform. People could have been more sensitive and considerate as they knew that they will be assign a new level soon. There is no assurance whether there will be food or even scraps available to consume.

Hierarchy of Needs

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, human beings are motivated by five basic categories of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem and self- actualization. The needs are organized in a hierarchy of paramountcy in which more basic need are prioritized above the higher needs. Mostly, the behavior is multi-motivated, that is, determined by more than one basic need.

Self-actualization needs are ranked the highest in Maslow’s hierarchy. It refers to the realization of a person’s potential, self-fulfilment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. In the film, everyone loses empathy due to the circumstances of desperation and survival. The last thing on their minds is to be self-actualized. The brutal nihilism, the empty populism is tooth aching to say the least.

Along with recent films like 'Snowpiercer', 'Parasite and Joker', class warfare and wealth disparity have been explored and received both critical and commercial acclaim. When observed closely, one can see a through line between the “The Platform” and the other movies. It’s astonishing!

References

1. https://thetab.com/uk/2020/03/30/the-platform-ending-explained-

netflix-149948

2. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-04-15/the-platform-

ending-explained-netflix-economists

3. https://iea.org.uk/the-dodgy-economics-of-snowpiercer-and-the-platform-an-econ-bores-

movie-review/

4. https://www.econafterhours.com/post/when-economy-catches-feelings-fear-in-the-times-

of-corona

5. https://www.econafterhours.com/post/when-economy-catches-feelings-fear-in-the-times-

of-corona

6. https://fs.blog/2017/10/veil-ignorance/

7. https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

By: Kashmira Sahoo (kashmira11sahoo@gmail.com)