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To know whether Panem is a command or market economy, we must first understand both. A market economy is a type of economic system where prices and production are determined by unrestricted competition by privately owned businesses, like the United States. Another way to look at it is that in a market economy, the activity is unplanned, it is not organized or controlled by a central authority but rather by the supply and demand of goods and services. On the other hand, a command economy, often referred to as a planned economy, is a different type of economic system where investments, production, incomes and prices are controlled by a government.
Knowing this information we can see that Panem is a command economy. In Panem we can see that there appears to not be any ownership of private property. More probable, it appears that the government assigns all housing. We can also see that the government in Panem can take away people’s possessions at any time and try to justify it by saying that it is for their own good. Seeing how the government in Panem treats its people, we can also infer that the government controls that production and pricing of goods. Finally, in Panem we see that there is also a major disparity with individuals’ wealth. We see that the higher up members of the government have all the wealth while the people in the other districts starve. These are a few of the many things we can see in Panem that make it a command economy.
There are a few reasons as to how the relationship between District 12 and the Capital is explained by the extraction model of development. To start off, district 12 is based around their main skill of coal mining. In the real world the coal mining industry would have more competition for labor and with the organization of unions, they would be able to raise their wages. Not wanting this to happen the Capitol in Panem does things a little differently. To keep this from happening, the Capitol gives the miners in District 12 subsistence wages, or wages that are maintained at the minimum level. People who are watching this movie may think, “well why not just move to another district where wages are better?” Knowing this is what people would want to do, the Capitol banned its people from moving to other districts to search for more opportunities. If the Capitol allowed the people of District 12 to earn more money, families such as the Mellark family who own a bakery in District 12, would have more customers because people would have more money to spend. This whole process would eventually mean that District 12 would grow and its people would do better. But the extractive institutions set in place by the Capitol keep District 12 from doing this, leaving them in a permanent state of poverty.
When you look at District 12 you see a group of people with such a low amount of money that they can barely afford to keep themselves fed. Knowing this, when hearing the question “In what sense are poor people in District 12 too poor to actually buy things” a few things come to mind. Mainly what comes to mind is the people in District 12 being too poor to buy things in the sense that they can not purchase things that will allow them to make money. In an economy such as ours, someone in poverty can attempt to buy things or start things such as a business to get out of poverty. In District 12, not only does the Capitol make sure they can never make enough money to do this, but the Capitol also owns everything, so it wouldn’t be allowed even if you could. What also comes to mind is that people in District 12 are too poor to buy things in the sense that they are literally way too poor to buy things. With the wages they are being given by the Capitol and the sheer lack of resources, people in District 12 are just far too poor to buy things.
This system of not allowing people in a District to make enough money to purchase things can really affect the development of their economy. In order for an economy to grow you need to have goods and services being produced as well as people with enough money to afford and purchase those goods and services. In District 12 it is impossible for this to happen. With the incredibly low wages prohibiting the people of the district from producing these goods, the economy of District 12 is at a constant standstill. They aren’t allowed to create businesses, they can’t afford to produce goods and services, and even if someone did, none of them could afford it. Unless something were to change such as increased wages or the ability for citizens to buy land or structures, the economy of District 12 will never grow or get better.
The Capitol is in charge of the distribution of all resources to all districts throughout Panem. You may be asking yourself what is in it for the Capitol to waste resources on the lower Districts. This is called opportunity costs. Put simply, opportunity cost is losing a benefit that could have been gained if a certain choice had not been made. In this case, the benefit lost by the Capitol is extra resources that they could have used for themselves but instead chose to give to the Districts. The Capitol does this because they want to make the Districts dependant on them. They know that there is a less of a chance that the Districts will try to rebel if the Districts know they get all of their resources from the Capitol.
Making sure the Districts do not rebel is not the only reason the Capitol gives other Districts resources. Another big reason is because all of the other districts have a purpose, they all have jobs to do. If the Capitol does not give them the proper resources to do their jobs then they will not be able to produce the Capital with the necessary items. Knowing this, the Capitol must make sure that the districts always have the minimum amount of resources necessary to do their jobs. It is very interesting looking at Panem from an outside perspective. Panem is like a bunch of cogs and gears that power one machine, that machine being the Capitol. If one gear stops working, then the whole machine stops working. So if one District stops working, everyone suffers.
In our lives we have new technologies being created everyday. Oftentimes these technologies have a common theme when they are being created. That theme is usually what technology can be created to make, fill in the blank, easier. Society wanted to travel further distances quicker and more efficiently, so the car was made. When we wanted to go even further even faster, the plane was made. When writing letters and making phone calls in a phone booth was too hard, we created the cell phone. Panem and the Capitol do not have this same approach. The theme of the Capitol creating technology in the hunger games can better be described as, what technology can be created to make sure Districts obey us. Instead of technology making life easier in Panem, it seems to make life for the people of the Districts harder. We see some of these technologies in the hunger games movies. We see the Capitol’s soldiers with weapons to keep the districts in line that none of the people of the district own. We see aircraft whose purpose is to identify and sometimes execute people of the districts who are out of line. We also see technology that allows items and animals to appear in the hunger games arena. Many of these technologies could be used to help the districts but instead are used to make sure order is kept.
A common theme seen in the hunger games is the large technological differences between the districts. Despite the Capitol having a large array of very advanced technologies, we can see that Districts such as District 12 are suffering from starvation and disease. This is all due to the Capitol’s ultimate goal of having the Districts provide all necessary items for them while making sure they themselves benefit with all the money and fancy technology. Could the Capital distribute and teach other Districts about these technologies? Sure, in fact it would benefit everybody. The people of the Districts would have access to technology that would better their way of living. And the Capitol wouldn’t have to worry about rebellion because the people of the Districts would be happier. But, remembering that this is a movie, we all know that if this was the case the whole plot for the movie would not work. The Hunger Games is a very entertaining movie with many interesting connections to the world of economics that I would have never seen if not for the question given to me.
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