There's two types of people now. The Owners that were able to afford the payment to keep working and continue to provide themselves income to have a happy life were one type. Then there were the Owned that couldn't afford the payment and are now servants for Owners for the rest of their lives. With so many jobs being taken up, the government needed a way to have more jobs for society. Hence the required payment for work. The Owned don't have rights anymore, they just have to follow the new rules that they have from their owners. Bernadette, an Owned, now serves the very wealthy Johnson's and hates that this is how she now has to live her life. She can't just stand by and let the rest of her life go by with no rights. She knows that she needs to escape.