The Hunger Games

[giblets]

Anyone else think that the government in the world of The Hunger Games, would be a one percenter's wet dream come true?

No. One percenters don't want gladiatorial combat or anything, they just want to hold onto some of the money they earn.

[giblets]

"Fox and Friends Weekend" offered its take on the hit series "The Hunger Games on Saturday, suggesting that the story is really about the dangers of big government.

The film adaptation of the bestselling trilogy opened to huge numbers on Friday. On Saturday, Fox News' morning show asked if "The Hunger Games" illustrated "the horrors of big government."

RealClearMarkets and Forbes Opinions editor John Tamny weighed in. He said that while the story was open to interpretation, elements of the plot could certainly be taken as warnings against big government.

"But certainly, if you look at countries where the people living in them are starving, those are countries oppressed by too much government whereby basically they cannot produce and be productive and get food in return for their work," he said.

"This does not occur in capitalist societies," Tamny continued. "It occurs in societies overrun by government. They are also at war essentially with each other and if you look at historically when you're not allowed to exchange what you work for for that of others, history says people go to war and that's essentially what Panem is."

Fox News contributor James Pinkerton expressed similar sentiments in a recent column for the network. He called the movie "a furious critique of our political system," writing that the story "shoots arrows at big government [and] big media."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/25/fox-and-friends-hunger-games_n_1378102.html

[Hauldren Collider]

That article illustrates my point perfectly

[Barnabas]

I thought the movie had a clear theme of decadent big city people and poor hard working rurals.

[Dr Strangelove]

I could see how someone could interpret the movie as the big bad big government oppressing the little people. The inhabitants of "Central District" live lives of luxury with technology near the level of Star Trek, the other 12 districts which produce goods and materials live in environs reminiscent of the Great Depression. I thought it was a little weird that people capable of building something similar to a Star trek holosuite would still be using coal as a power source.
Bill O'Reiily ripped into it because he thought it was a protrayal of a future dysfunctional America and also because it centered around violence to children. I didn't see anything in the movie that really made me think that it was a protrayal of America's future. As far as violence towards children, 90% of horror films do also. Jason never invades a nursing home, Freddie doesn't terrorize Senior Citizen's centers.

[MrFun]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1378102.html

Never mind the fact that it's a capitalist corporation that is governing the nation in The Hunger Games.

[Hauldren Collider]

It's actually not capitalist, at least outside the Capitol. Actually, the whole economics of the book make no coherent sense, so it's not worth dwelling on. But observe that they have to have a black market in the districts.

[DinoDoc]

It's actually not capitalist, at least outside the Capitol. Actually, the whole economics of the book make no coherent sense, ...

Could any real country have an economy like Panem’s? Actually, yes.

[Dr Strangelove]

Could any real country have an economy like Panem’s? Actually, yes.

Regarding whether electronics could be produced in an "extractive" economy, remember that most of the parts of your computer are now being produced in realtively poor parts of Asia. The wealth is accrued in the countries of the parent corporations.

[Hauldren Collider]

The production of semiconductors in Taiwan and China is not extractive in the slightest. Don't be an idiot. Observe how these industries have improved standard of living there, by providing gainful employment. And it's not as though no one in China or Taiwan has electronics.

[Dinner]

I liked it. Not super-awesome, but fun.

That was my take too. I recently read all three books and thought the first one was fun but the second one less so while the third one got kind of dumb. Still, they were quick and easy reads with each book taking about a day to a day and a half.

One thing that did bug me though was that California (highest point ~14,000 ft) supposedly was flooded or fell into the ocean where as most of the midwest was still there (average elevation less than 2,000 ft) and I giggled at that assertion.

[giblets]

The production of semiconductors in Taiwan and China is not extractive in the slightest. Don't be an idiot. Observe how these industries have improved standard of living there, by providing gainful employment. And it's not as though no one in China or Taiwan has electronics.

Providing gainful employment does not disqualify something from being "extractive".

[Elok]

Read the first book. The premise/setting is interesting, but the author wouldn't know subtlety if it...did something that wasn't very subtle. In which case, I guess it wouldn't be subtle anymore and she shouldn't be expected to recognize it. Touche, Ms. Collins, touche.

[Dr Strangelove]

The production of semiconductors in Taiwan and China is not extractive in the slightest. Don't be an idiot. Observe how these industries have improved standard of living there, by providing gainful employment. And it's not as though no one in China or Taiwan has electronics.

A lot of the work on computer parts is now being outsourced from those countries to other, poorer countries. There's been a relative shortage of hard drives and disc drives recently because floods in Thailand wiped out factories producing a very large portion of the world's digital storage equipment.