It's unclear how far and slave like cities will become in the west. Certainly as the civilization collapses further without a fair monetary reset, getting out of large population centres should be main priority so you can be less dependent on the system for food and be easier controlled.
Discussion
My gut says there's a equalibrium/ bottleneck with technology.
But, power will definetly push for as much as they can get.
Most offices can't even handle a router or IP camera, and installation of hardware actually takes effort still, cables/ antenna position.
Agree there should be easy workarounds that make escape easy.
As per Animal Farm, if they make it too uncomfortable for the farm animals, they will feel uncomfortable, start going wild and rebelling. So whatever is implemented, will be made comfortable for the NPCs.