The last time a whole world was so organized around a single, central state was in the fifteenth century, when East Asia was centered on Ming-dynasty China. China at the time wasn’t just the leader or regional hegemon; it was the central state of a political and cultural realm that stretched from Burma to Japan.
People are proposing many creative approaches to reducing inequality, but I don’t see any reason to be creative when reliable, well-tested policies are available off the shelf. To reduce inequality, governments should collect taxes using strongly progressive income tax systems and governments should provide services universally on an equal basis to all citizens.
As European nervousness over Trump demonstrates, the United States is more than ever the hub of the European regional security system. Perhaps it’s time for the United States to find some new spokes?
“It is a common rule of propriety that culturally inferior foreign peoples should respect the Central Kingdom.” So begins a 1374 letter from Ming China’s founding Hongwu Emperor to a regional ruler in Japan. It continues: “One principle in both ancient and modern times has been for the small to serve the great.”