My Dystopian Novel is Already Becoming a Reality

When I sat down to write a dystopian novel set 30 years in the future where young people are bought and sold like stocks and those deemed not valuable are used as spare parts for the elite, I wrote it as fiction. Now, just as it’s being published, it’s already showing hints of becoming true.

In my debut novel The Auction, twenty-two-year-olds are evaluated and bid on by a cartel of corporations that control the economy. The elite, such as the book’s protagonist Sasha Cross, are worth tens of millions of dollars, which goes to their parents to pay for retirement. In this Draconian system, young people’s financial future is auctioned off to the highest bidder. Unrealistic? Not anymore. College students today can auction off their future earnings in exchange for tuition payments.