Given the ax Mr. James seeks to grind, I don't see what The Hunger Games has to do with it. Especially after he admits, "To be fair, I have not actually read the full trilogy."
It's a story about a dystopian future. The author does not dwell on how the environment came about. She hints the US has been subjected to a cataclysmic event, but gives no details.
Mr. James, get a grip, it's just a story. Enjoy it for what it is and quit trying to read between the lines.
it would seem this article is simply taking our current slippery slope to at least one possible conclusion...if we allow ourselves to be enslaved and disarmed...