Ha-Joon Chang Quotes

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• Once you realize that trickle-down economics does not work, you will see the excessive tax cuts for the rick as what they are -- a simple upward redistribution of income, rather than a way to make all of us richer, as we were told.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Cutting, Simple, Doe

  49 Copy quote

• Making rich people richer doesn't make the rest of us richer.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  People, Wealth, Rich

  "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism". Book by Ha-Joon Chang, 2010.

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• Self-interest, to be sure, is one of the most important, but we have many other motives - honesty, self-respect, altruism, love, sympathy, faith, sense of duty, solidarity, loyalty, public-spiritedness, patriotism, and so on - that are sometimes even more important than self-seeking as the driver of our behaviors.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Loyalty, Honesty, Self

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• As South Korea shows, active participation in international trade does not require free trade. Indeed, had South Korea pursued free trade and not promoted infant industries, it would not have become a major trading nation. It would still be exporting raw materials (e.g., tungsten ore, fish, seaweed) or low-technology, low-price products (e.g., textiles, garments, wigs made with human hair) that used to be its main export items in the 1960s.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Technology, Hair, Korea

  Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism”, Bloomsbury Press

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• Equality of opportunity is not enough. Unless we create an environment where everyone is guaranteed some minimum capabilities through some guarantee of minimum income, education, and healthcare, we cannot say that we have fair competition. When some people have to run a 100 metre race with sandbags on their legs, the fact that no one is allowed to have a head start does not make the race fair. Equality of opportunity is absolutely necessary but not sufficient in building a genuinely fair and efficient society.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Running, Opportunity, Race

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• Rich countries have 'kicked away the ladder' by forcing free-market, free-trade policies on poor countries. Already established countries do not want more competitors emerging through the nationalistic policies they themselves successfully used in the past.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Country, Past, Rich Countries

  Ha-Joon Chang (2008). “Bad Samaritans: The Guilty Secrets of Rich Nations and the Threat to Global Prosperity”, p.61, Random House

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• The best way to boost the economy is to redistribute wealth downward, as poorer people tend to spend a higher proportion of their income.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  People, Income, Way

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• There are different ways to organise capitalism. Free-market capitalism is only one of them-and not a very good one at that.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Different, Way, Very Good

  "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang" by John Gray, www.theguardian.com. August 28, 2010.

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• The history of capitalism has been so totally re-written that many people in the rich world do not perceive the historical double standards involved in recommending free trade and free market to developing countries.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Country, People, Historical

  Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism”, Bloomsbury Press

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• Rational thinking is an important aspect of human nature, but we have imagination, we have ambition, we have irrational fear, we are swayed by other people, we get indoctrinated and we get influenced by advertising.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Ambition, Thinking, People

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• 95% of Economics is common sense deliberately made complicated.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Common Sense, Complicated, Economics

  YouTube Chanel "The RSA"/ "Ha-Joon Chang - 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism", www.youtube.com. September 9, 2010.

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• The free market doesn't exist. Every market has some rules and boundaries that restrict freedom of choice. A market looks free only because we so unconditionally accept its underlying restrictions that we fail to see them.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Choices, Looks, Failing

  "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism: Item #1 -- There's No Such Thing as a Free Market" by Ha-Joon Chang, www.alternet.org. January 30, 2011.

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• The Korean economic miracle was the result of a clever and pragmatic mixture of market incentives and state direction.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Clever, Miracle, Incentives

  Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism”, Bloomsbury Press

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• 95 percent of economics is common sense made complicated, and even for the remaining 5 percent, the essential reasoning, if not all the technical details, can be explained in plain terms.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Common Sense, Essentials, Details

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• A well-designed welfare state can actually encourage people to take chances with their jobs and be more, not less, open to changes.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Jobs, People, Chance

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• The washing machine changed the world more than the Internet.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Machines, World, Internet

  "Ha-Joon Chang: The net isn't as important as we think" by William Skidelsky, www.theguardian.com. August 28, 2010.

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• If we are really serious about preventing another crisis like the 2008 meltdown we should simply ban complex financial instruments, unless they can be unambiguously shown to benefit society in the long run. This is what we do all the time with other products-drugs, cars, electrical products and many others.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Running, Business, Long

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• Since the 1980s, we have given the rich a bigger slice of our pie in the belief that they would create more wealth, making the pie bigger than otherwise possible in the long run. The rich got the bigger slice of the pie all right, but they have actually reduced the pace at which the pie is growing.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Running, Pie, Long

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• The danger is not only that these austerity measures are killing the European economies but also that they threaten the very legitimacy of European democracies - not just directly by threatening the livelihoods of so many people and pushing the economy into a downward spiral, but also indirectly by undermining the legitimacy of the political system through this backdoor rewriting of the social contract.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  People, Political, Democracy

  "The root of Europe's riots" by Ha-Joon Chang, www.theguardian.com. September 28, 2012.

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• Countries are poor not because their people are lazy; their people are 'lazy' because they are poor.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Country, People, Lazy

  Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: rich nations, poor policies, and the threat to the developing world”, Century

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• People who live in poor countries have to be entrepreneurial even just to survive.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Country, People, Poor

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• Manufacturing is the most important...route to prosperity.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Important, Prosperity, Routes

  "Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism". Book by Ha-Joon Chang, 2008.

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• Assume the worst about people and you get the worst.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  People, Assuming, Worst

  Ha-Joon Chang (2010). “23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism”, p.40, Penguin UK

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• Democracy is acceptable to neo-liberals only in so far as it does not contradict the free market.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Democracy, Doe, Free Market

  Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism”, Bloomsbury Press

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• Gore Vidal, the American writer, once described the American economic system as 'free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich'. Macroeconomic policy on the global scale is a bit like that. It is Keynesianism for the rich countries and monetarism for the poor.

  Ha-Joon Chang

  Country, Rich Countries, Socialism

  Ha-Joon Chang (2007). “Bad Samaritans: rich nations, poor policies, and the threat to the developing world”, Century

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