Book Review (Part I): The Work of Nations
by Robert B. Reich © 1992 by McGraw-Hill. Pub. by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Work of Nations describes the future economy of the world, particularly as it regards the acendency of the symbolic-analyst in the U.S. labor force.

"Desire to end the relationship is rarely sufficient to accomplish the feat of secession. Secessionists must also undo the political and legal ties that bind them to their undesired compatriots. The latter can be expected to resist such efforts, especially if they have benefited from the compact. The politics of secession are thus rarely cordial." (pg. 282)

Yet, the widening divergence in their incomes, the growing difference in their working conditions, the regressive shift of the tax burden, the difference in the quality of primary and secondary education available to their children, the growing disparity in their access to higher education, the increasing difference in recreational facilities, roads, security, and other local amenities available to them-no part of this broad trend toward inequality has generated overt resentment from the majority of citizens.

Even if all these impediments did not exist, the lower four-fifths of the population would still be reluctant to press demands upon the top fifth. The reason is economic. The rest of the population is dependent upon how and where symbolic analysts decide to dedicate their energies and money. The dependence of in-person servers is direct; wealthy symbolic analysts in their midst attract money from the rest of the world and spend a part of it on local services. Routine producers, although not dependent on American symbolic analysts exclusively, nonetheless rely on the decisions of strategic brokers of whatever nationality to give them work and, hopefully, to train them to become more valuable and productive.

The dependency is not symmetrical. Symbolic analysts represent the most mobile part of any nation's work force. They do not rely on nearby factories (as do routine producers); nor do they depend on large numbers of customers in close geographic proximity in order to make their sales (as do in-person servers). Symbolic analysts can work almost anywhere there exist a telephone, xfax, modem, and airport. While symbolic analysts are likely to drew intellectual sustenance from the presence of other symbolic analysts in the special zone of the city or exurb where they work, they are not bound to work even there; there are other symbolic-analytic centers to which they might relocate.

In sum, because in-person servers and routine producers need symbolic analysts much more than symbolic analysts need them, the former have little political leverage over the latter. They cannot force symbolic analysts to share their incomes with them or to invest in their futures. The politics of secession are relatively peaceful, in other words, because the other side lacks any political artillery.-- Ri-Gui Dalia Liang.