Setting

• The Hunger Games universe is a dystopia set in Panem, a North American country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and 13 districts in varying states of poverty.

• Every year, two children, one boy and one girl, from the first 12 districts are selected via lottery to participate in a compulsory televised battle royale death match called The Hunger Games.

Difference in lifestyles

• In Panem, wealth is heavily concentrated in the hands of the rich, particularly those people living in the Capitol and certain of the districts.

• Katniss notes that starvation is common in District 12, and she has to hunt illegally in the woods beyond the district’s borders to feed her family. Katniss later learns that Peeta’s family, which owns a bakery and is thus one of the more well-off in the district, although they can’t afford most of the food they bake and eat mostly the stale leftovers that nobody buys.

• In contrast, when Katniss arrives in the Capitol, she is awed by the lavish feasts and elaborately prepared dishes. The food is rich and abundant, and Katniss, for the first time, tries hot chocolate.

  
  

Tessera system

• The best example of the inequality between rich and poor can be seen in the tessera system and the way the tributes are selected for the Games.

• In theory, the lottery by which tributes are chosen, called the reaping, is random and anyone can be picked. But in reality, the poor are much more likely than the rich to end up as tributes.

• In exchange for extra rations of food and oil, called tesserae, those children eligible for the Hunger Games can enter their names into the reaping additional times.

• Most children of poor families have to take tesserae to survive, so the children of poor families have more entries in the reaping than children of wealthy families who need no tesserae. They’re more likely to be picked as a result.

Added advantage for the rich

• The rich who do become tributes tend to have an additional advantage, because they are often trained to take part in the Games and volunteer to do so.

• These trained tributes, which Katniss refers to as Career Tributes, are generally bigger, stronger, and better prepared for the tribulations of the Hunger Games than those poor tributes selected by chance. They are consequently more likely to survive.

• For these rich tributes, it is an honor to compete in the Games, while for the poor tributes it is essentially a death sentence.

Impact on Society

• The extreme inequality and the Capitol's oppressive control lead to a loss of trust in the government and institutions, as the districts see the Capitol as a symbol of their exploitation and suffering.

• Wealth Concentration -> In the U.S., a significant portion of wealth is held by the top 1% of the population. According to data, the wealthiest Americans have seen their fortunes grow exponentially, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, while many middle- and lower-income families struggled. Billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and others have amassed unprecedented wealth, widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

• Stagnant wages and rising costs -> While the wealth of the richest has grown, wages for the average worker have stagnated when adjusted for inflation. At the same time, the cost of living, including housing, healthcare, and education, has risen, making it harder for the average American to make ends meet.

Policies

• Tax policies and deregulation in the U.S. have often favored the wealthy, with tax cuts benefiting corporations and the rich disproportionately.

• While the median American household paid 14% of their income in federal taxes, according to ProPublica, the wealthiest 25 Americans had a "true tax rate" that on average came out to 3.4% of the amount their wealth grew each year between 2014 and 2018.

• These policies exacerbate inequality by allowing the rich to accumulate more wealth while reducing government revenue that could be used for social programs to help the less fortunate.

Social Unrest

• Occupy Wall Street in 2011 -> protested against corporate greed and economic inequality

• More recently, the growing frustration over economic inequities has contributed to widespread protests and political polarization. -> Based on Xinhua, 2023 saw a record of labor activities in the United States, as recent data showed that at least 453,000 workers have participated in 312 strikes in the United States, marking the highest level since 2019.

  
  

Impact on Society

• The growing divide has led to increased political and social tension.

• The feeling that the system is rigged in favor of the wealthy and powerful has contributed to a loss of trust in institutions and the rise of populist movements on both ends of the political spectrum.

• According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2023, about 6 in 10 adults now say that the feeling that some corporations don't pay their fair share of taxes bothers them a lot, while a nearly identical share say this about some wealthy people not paying their fair share.