Forced Labor

Panem runs on compelled work. Everyone in the districts outside the small merchant class is bound to their district's trade from childhood, whether that trade is mining, textiles, masonry, or the harvest, and the quotas come from the Capitol. Nearly everything produced goes there. Hours are long, safety measures barely exist, and injury, illness, and early death are ordinary. Leaving is not on the table either, since every district is fenced, though the fences range from the barely maintained one at District 12 to District 11's thirty five feet of wire and watchtowers. Capitol work is comfortable by comparison, and dissent there is punished another way: an Avox has their tongue cut out and spends the rest of their life in service.