Someone should make a ROM hack where Pokémon centres charge a game-world fee equivalent to what a person would pay for healthcare for serious injuries in the US, with insurance and loan sharks.
Arceusism is the state religion and others are barely tolerated.
Gyms are privatized and cost per attempt.
Pokemon sweatshops.
PC access is a freemiun model where you get the first 5 for free, but beyond that you have to pay for Pokestorage+ and pay monthly. Also pokes come out hating you so pretty sure they getting abused. And occasionally pokes get lost.
I think that was literally a plot point in one of the earlier games or anime? That one will be easy to adapt, just make Team Rocket the heroes for being shrewd businesspeople and you the villain for daring to question the will of the free market.
I mean, why would pokemon be on the side of team rocket or whatever other villainous (often apocalyptic) group the games have? They just follow whoever catches them no matter what.
Why wouldn't they? Team Rocket/MagmAqua/Galactic/Plasma/Flare all have pokemon fighting with them. They listen to the trainer, not the moral obligation of the society.
Pokemon in all versions of Pokemon are literal slaves. They have no free will if they are in a Poke Bowl. And depending on the movie - that free will can be overwritten again by a Psychic Type Pokemon.
The U.S. has been trained to see protesting as a bad thing, so now we all just take the hits and blame neighbors whose political values don't line up with ours.
It's amazing how many people I meet who think so highly of the American revolution, but are completely aghast at the idea of fighting against the government now.
