VOLUME V, CHAPTER 11
The Struggle over Scarcity, from Inside a Nation to Between Nations
This chapter walks in two stretches. The first two sections turn the lens on scarcity in the present, one looking at America, one at China, and close off the long line of the strong holding scarcity alone inside a single nation. The third section lifts the lens from inside a nation to the space between nations, and opens a new line. The earlier chapters spoke of the strong and the weak inside one nation. From the end of this chapter on, it is the taker and the taken between nations.
The first section looks at four tools in present-day America, the patent, the credential, real estate, the political contribution. The more developed the nation, the handsomer the tools, and the harder the root of the holding alone is to see through. This is the thirty-second layer.
The second section looks at four tools in present-day China, the household registration, the school district, the establishment post, the inside of the system, same root and different shape from America, and it gathers up this whole line on scarcity. This is the thirty-third layer.
The third section lifts the lens to the space between nations and asks why there has never been a real law between nations. Because there is no highest enforcer. What is called international law is only the law of one household written by the few strongest. This is the thirty-fourth layer.
These three sections build from the thirty-second layer to the thirty-fourth. The first two together carry the strong holding alone from the ancient down to the present in both great civilizations, America and China. The third joins on a larger line, the same logic enlarged to the scale of nations. This chapter keeps one discipline in particular. Of America it does not smear, of China it does not boast, of the international it takes no side. It sets down only positions and facts, and leaves the judgment to you.
Contents
Section One. Present-Day America, Four Tools in the Struggle over Scarce Resources.
Section Two. Present-Day China, Four Tools in the Struggle over Scarce Resources.
Section Three. Between Nations, Why There Is No Law.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.