When do the Hunger Games begin?

As a reward for intensive help during a project, I traveled to the grocery store for a specifically requested ice cream for my son. As I walked the length of the immense freezer aisle I was floored by the hundreds of ice cream varieties available ( I don't shop that aisle much ever). Having just finished the Hunger Games trilogy, I already had on my mind how close my nearly middle class life and the lives of those citizens who live in the Capitol of Panem is. Even years ago, I was starting to feel that our society here in the USA was frighteningly beginning to resemble the latter days of the Roman Empire, when the wealthiest citizens continued to empty the empire of the resources needed to maintain the vast conglomeration until said resources vanished, eventually crumbling the entire empire to pieces from within and ushering in centuries of violence and danger, at least for what later became Europe. Our decadent lifestyles and mindless entertainment for years have been vastly different from how the majority of the global population, particularly poorer and emerging nations, scrape by with their mostly subsistence surviving. The Hunger Games have uncomfortably demonstrated to me the way our lives here are so remarkably similar to the Capitol:

• So many kinds and so much food available, much of which is wasted, even when we have people going hungry in this country, in your neighborhood, every day.  
• The children of low income parents as human fodder in the wars we wage for our continued access to foreign oil, as this demographic comprises the biggest portion of noncommisioned soldiers. If they don't die overseas, they might be one of the 38 veterans every DAY who try to commit suicide. 
• Obsession by many of mindless entertainment such as Dancing With the Stars, the best of the fall lineup, and sporting events, among others.
• Wasting of resources.
• Corporate-fostered callous indifference or obliviousness of the global effects of our consumption levels. 
• Passive acquiescence to civil authority, even when it's not in our best interests.
• Feelings of righteousness about our indulgent lives celebrating self-gratification.

We already live in the Capitol of Panem. Ouch.