In the year 2030, a series of laws in North America finally made it mandatory for all residents to have at least a high school diploma. Year-round schooling throughout the continent will enforce the idea that "a solid education and a hard-working attitude is better than ignorance and laziness." An equal law would follow in the People's Republic of China five years later. Ten years later, it would become the law in the United States of Europe and in the Eurasian Union. People who fail to graduate high school or acquire a GED will be collectively referred to as the Global Intellectual South.