So why can’t we act collectively? One answer is that we don’t have the institutions to do it. We have a United Nations, which can’t do much, because it doesn’t have much money, and the most powerful nation in the world, America, treats it like a mortal enemy, something to be crippled and hobbled. As a result, we don’t have a single global system of any kind — for healthcare, food, water, medicine, education, money. Without global systems, what kind of collective action can we take? None.