In my nano, one of the main characters was a ward of the state, taken from her family because they ignored government mandates for child rearing and did what they thought best. In that storyverse, the children are housed and educated by the state but the cost of it is carried by the kids themselves as debt that must be repaid. Indentured servitude, iow. Companies who might like to hire the wards could buy the debt from the government. The really competitive firms shop the kids while they are very young, looking for talent. The character was "sponsored" at a young age and went on to repay her debt very quickly because of a series of breakthrough technologies she developed for the company. Unfortunately, those breakthroughs doomed all of mankind, but that's the rest of the story.
Fascinating and frightening at the same time.
My story is nowhere near that deep. But it may be heading that way. Everytime I spend lunch time doing research, I’m finding out new things about the history of the region and the culture I’ve chosen for the setting.
The story itself could fit anywhere, but this gives it the flavor I want. But each little fact takes me off on a different tangent.
Truly a ‘nanny’ state.