Aligning nested cases vertically
You can use \smash[t]
.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\[\text{Productive forces}\begin{cases}
\text{Means of production}
\smash[t]{\begin{cases}
\text{Instruments of production}\\
\text{Raw materials} \\
\text{Spaces}
\end{cases}} \\
\text{Labour power}
\end{cases}
\]
\end{document}
You should consider that there might be possible surrounding text. The following puts the structure in a 4-row tabular
:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque metus magna,
placerat laoreet feugiat a, fermentum id elit. Pellentesque sodales mauris eget
condimentum ullamcorper. Phasellus sit amet tempus nunc.
\[
% Vertical structure containing 4 rows of items
\vphantom{\left\{\begin{tabular}{l}
\strut \\ \strut \\ \strut \\ \strut
\end{tabular}\right.}
\smash{\begin{tabular}{l}
\strut \\ \strut \\ % Two empty rows
\strut \smash{Productive forces
$\left\{
\begin{tabular}{@{} l}
\strut \smash{Means of production
$\left\{\begin{tabular}{@{} l}
Instruments of production \\
Raw materials \\
Spaces
\end{tabular}\right.$} \\ \\
Labour power
\end{tabular}
\right.$} \\
\strut % One empty row
\end{tabular}}
\]
Sed consequat, mi sed vestibulum molestie, risus orci pulvinar libero, vitae
consequat sapien nulla vel ipsum. Nulla porta tellus arcu, ac facilisis sapien
rhoncus et.
\end{document}
You can \smash
the second cases
to hide its height and add a small length accordingly, say 2\normalbaselineskip
.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\[\text{Productive forces}\begin{cases}
\text{Means of production}
\smash{\begin{cases}
\text{Instruments of production}\\
\text{Raw materials} \\
\text{Spaces}
\end{cases}} \\[2\normalbaselineskip]
\text{Labour power}
\end{cases}
\]
\end{document}