“I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life. But I wanted it to use the kind of characters we’ve all met in real life,”
Yeah like that's what I want to see but it wouldn't be very interesting if there were no stakes. Main character still has to be an underdog.
I mean, he's just an unemployed factory worker with 20 million dollars, and he's facing a conspiracy of hyper violent hedonistic billionaires.
It'd be hard for him to not be the underdog, unless he gets some kind of super powers or something similarly silly happens.