Capitalism is often seen as a system that can lead you to great amounts of wealth. It also tends to lead to big corporations making bad decisions. Chain-Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, is a novel that explores a future where prisoners have to fight for their freedom, all while facing the potential reality that they might not make it long enough to see it. This is all being orchestrated by the Criminal Penal Action Entertainment program, also known as the CAPE program. They show the fights live to viewers numbering in the hundreds of thousands, potentially in the millions, and make money off of it. Based on what can be seen in Chain Gang All-Stars, and through extensive research outside the book, companies use capitalism to make a large profit, while often ignoring the effects—like economic damage or real physical harm—they have on other people. 

In the real world, companies are often attempting to make as much money as possible, even if it negatively affects their customers and their families. In an article titled “Texas may ban THC products just a few years after legalization started a big business,” by Andrew Schneider, it explores the effects of the THC industry in the state of Texas. After it was legalized a few years ago, it quickly became a large industry, and “by Patrick's estimate, the market for such consumables in Texas has grown to $8 billion annually” (Schneider). In a short amount of time, this industry has been able to pull in billions of dollars on a yearly basis. This large increase in profits is an example of how quickly an industry—including ones like this—can expand once allowed to. However, this expansion came with a lot of problems, mainly for the people who bought those products. When interviewing a woman named Alexandra Hess, whose brother, Joshua Jimenez, was affected by using those products, she states that “After consuming intoxicating levels of THC products, my brother suffered repeated psychotic breaks and spiraled into a mental health crisis that no one was equipped to handle.” (Schneider). The interviewee’s brother had serious mental health problems due to using THC products, and couldn’t get enough help. This industry expanded quickly, but so did all of the problems that it can cause. Another example of this is shown in an article titled “Oil companies expected a big business boom under Trump. Now they’re worried,” by Kirk Siegler, where the focus is on how oil companies affected local communities in the San Juan Basin. In an interview, Sean Dugan, the owner of a smaller, family drilling business in Farmington, says that “It used to be an epicenter . . . When the majors left, they took all their rigs with them” (Siegler). This region used to be important, not only for major companies, but also for the locals. After the majors left, they took all of the equipment they came with, and the locals had to try and fend for themselves with whatever they could come up with. These oil companies moved on, and “many left for shale drilling areas like the Bakken in North Dakota or the Permian Basin in southern New Mexico and Texas where drilling on private land was more productive, lucrative and economical.” (Siegler). Companies left because there were other regions in the United States that promised better areas for them to conduct their business. It left people in the San Juan Basin unable to make as much money, and now they’ve been looking for other sources of income ever since. 

When things like this happen, people will often voice their concerns about it—especially when it affects them personally—but companies will simply ignore it. In the novel Chain-Gang All-Stars, we see how the CAPE program uses every opportunity they can to make money. One way is through sponsors. In one fight, there is a short description of one of the fighter’s armor, and part of it is “lightweight reinforced carbon-fiber-polymer chest guard, branded with the WholeMarket insignia . . .” (Adjei-Brenyah, 16). Other companies are giving the CAPE program money in exchange for some advertising. This is a great example of companies—even if they don’t do the same things—use each other to make money. With the CAPE program being televised, there are some parts of the book that focus on the fans. One of them says that “He’d splurged on the platinum package so he had access to all things Chain-Gang all the time” (Adjei-Brenyah, 47). Fans are spending lots of money to get the best experience that they can get. However, very few of them actually take the time to think about what they’re giving money to. With all of this going on, there are some people that don’t like what they are seeing. They’ve started protests against the CAPE program. One of them, Tracy Lasser, does her protest on live television, and she says “I stand in solidarity with those around the country who have demonstrated against so-called hard action-sports” (Adjei-Brenyah, 113). Lasser supports the people “across the country who have demonstrated,” and doing this live on TV allows for more people to get on board. People all across the country don’t want the CAPE program to exist, and they seem to be getting more and more support throughout the novel. The board members in charge of the CAPE program know that there are people protesting against it, but they decide to ignore it. After Tracy’s actions, they decide that “whatever she thought she was doing has only marginally affected viewership and potential viewership” (Adjei-Brenyah, 182). The board member’s comment on Tracy’s actions only “marginally affecting” views illustrates how they chose to ignore Tracy’s protest because it doesn’t affect the amount of viewers they get. As long as their main source of revenue isn’t affected, companies—like the CAPE program, of which its existence is questioned, let alone what they do—tend to ignore genuine criticism. 

Here in the real world, some people argue that some of these industries need to exist, as there are some benefits that can be seen from keeping them around. However, there really aren’t enough to justify keeping it around. Back in Andrew Schneider’s article, in the same interview with Alexandra Hess, she also stated that “I wish Joshua was here to tell you his story first hand. Unfortunately, he did not survive his last psychotic break” (Schneider). These products caused this person to go into a psychotic break that he did not manage to survive. Although there are some benefits of THC products for some people—like for medical purposes—they are very few and far between, and the negatives far outweigh the positives when it comes to this. Another argument people like to make is that if things get out of hand, the government can step in and get things under control. In a different article by Mallory Yu, it explores the creation of state lotteries and how they became so popular. The article provides a transcript from a recent interview of Ian Coss conducted on a WGBH News podcast. He explains that lotteries were created because “in addition to raising money for the state, the other key rationale - and this was really important politically actually in getting these lotteries created - was to put the mob out of business” (Yu). State lotteries were seen as a secondary source of income for the government. Politicians, wanting to create more, justified it by saying that they were trying to get rid of the mob’s influence. Another article by Darian Woods includes a transcript of an interview conducted by NPR News. talks about how the government is stepping in to try and fix the housing market. The reason they are getting involved is because “When house prices in general started to rise a lot in the early 2020s, politicians from Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren to Republican Vice President JD Vance would blame institutional investors” (Woods). The government noticed how housing prices were increasing very quickly, and they wanted to help. They believed that investors were involved in creating this problem, so they created a bill that would go after them. However, this bill wouldn’t help out, as “this is a bill designed to increase supply, and you're actually cutting off the activity that is designed to do exactly that” (Woods). The investors actually don’t affect the housing market by a lot, and in reality, they do a lot—like building more houses to increase the supply—to help it. By preventing them from doing their thing, the government is making the situation worse for people. Even if the government intervenes for a good cause, they’re either doing it for their own benefit or they end up making things worse for people overall. 

If the people want these companies to actually listen to them, or if they want the government to make any meaningful changes, they have to bring more attention to the actions that they have committed. In Chain-Gang All-Stars, this is mainly shown through an increasing amount of protests against the CAPE program. However, at the beginning, there were barely any people involved. One of the first protests in the novel is against “B3,” or simply put, the law that legally justifies allowing the CAPE program to exist. This protest doesn’t do much, with the people only being “numbered in the—dozens? Were there a hundred people there?” (Adjei-Brenyah, 31). The protest, with there being multiple groups involved in it, had maybe “dozens” or “a hundred” people participating. The people aren’t really seeing the benefit of protesting the program, with there being so many people who watch it already. Later in the novel, they manage to grow their numbers, and at another protest, one of the fighters in the program notices that “the protestors far outnumbered the fans, the black they wore distinguishing them from the people who were just there to be entertained” (Adjei-Brenyah, 270). The protestors at the event “far outnumbered the fans,” and it becomes clear that the opposition towards the CAPE program has grown to an exponential level. By this time, it has become way too difficult for the people in charge of the program to ignore them. Eventually, Mari, the woman who has been organizing the protests all this time, decides to take a big step and protest at an arena. As she does, it dawns on the crowd that “Where life is precious, life is precious, and it dawned on the crowd, rapt and ready though they were for the doubles BattleGround match of the year, that life might not be precious here” (Adjei-Brenyah, 371). Mari’s protest manages to get the crowd—and the people watching from home—to think about how “life might not be precious here.” In their eyes, they finally begin to realize what has been going on, and how it shouldn’t be happening. Even so, the board members don’t see why they are protesting. In their minds, they’re doing the world a favor because “a knife is only ever so far from your neck. A man of ill intent is only ever so far from your children, your daughters, your sons. Couldn’t they see that?” (Adjei-Brenyah, 398). They believe that they’re making the world safer by keeping people “of ill intent” away from the public. What they don’t seem to realize, however, is that—even if it’s a good thing to keep them away—they shouldn’t be doing it like this. You’re not going to be able to fix someone’s problems by dehumanizing them and forcing them to fight for the people’s forgiveness. 

From what I’ve interpreted from the novel, and with what can be seen from the research I’ve conducted outside of it, it’s safe to conclude that companies, many of which are highly profitable—becoming multi-billion dollar industries in their own right—put the safety and well-being of their customers and people that rely on them to the side in favor of making as much money as possible. They take advantage of capitalism and try their best to ignore criticism for as long as possible, only addressing it once those profits become affected by it. The good news is, there are people and organizations out there that are willing to do whatever it takes to make these companies acknowledge the terrible things they’ve done. In Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, this is done through protests. People in the real world protest all around the world for causes that they believe in. Me, you, and everyone else has something that they believe in, and things that they want to change for the better. I believe that the first step in doing that is bringing attention to the issue at hand, and finding a way to get the support of people who believe the same things that we do.