People like Alex London

Proxy is a 2013 sci-fi, dystopian young adult novel by Alex London. The novel, which was released on June 18, 2013, features a gay adolescent as its action-hero protagonist. A sequel to the novel has been released in 2014, Guardian. The novel utilizes a third-person, subjective narration structure that alternates between Knox Brindle and Sydney Carton.

London states that he drew inspiration for Proxy from the 1987 book The Whipping Boy, "where the rich pay for the poor to take their punishments."

The book is set in a distant post-cataclysmic future where civilization has evolved its technology so rapidly through unrestricted capitalism to bring about a world where nearly every conceivable service can be purchased. Society has developed into a rigid class system where the Upper City lives in the height of luxury while the Lower City lives in utter poverty. As a result of the Lower City being infinitely indebted to the Upper City super corporations, the middle class has been eliminated altogether. Because of this debt, Upper City citizens can purchase the debts of someone from the Lower City. The wealthy patron will pay for the poorer person's essential needs and in return they serve as proxies to be punished whenever the rich patron either breaks the law, or needs their body for health purposes - e.g. donate blood or organs. However this system is seen as unfair, as the Lower City citizens assume this debt at birth and have no other feasible way to repay the debt. In addition any contact between the proxies and the patrons is outlawed. This injustice has brought about the existence of "The Rebooters", a rebel organization set on destroying this system by introducing "Jubilation", an idea that would erase debts, currency credits, and all digital data and records.