Quotes by Ha-Joon Chang - Page 2

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 / Economist
Boundaries
Looks
Rules
Accept
Choice
Fail
Market
Restrict
Unconditionally
Underlying
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Without there being some national strategy, it is difficult for educators to know what kinds of engineers or technicians to produce and for potential students to know what professions to study for.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Engineers
Produce
Strategy
Study
Technicians
Educators
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By liberating women from household work and helping to abolish professions such as domestic service, the washing machine and other household goods completely revolutionised the structure of society.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Abolish
Goods
Helping
Liberating
Structure
Washing
Work Women Society
Domestic
Professions
Service
Washing Machine
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It is time that we dispensed with the myth that the market is a force of nature that should not be meddled with. Markets are social creations that can be, and have been, modified for social purposes.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Myth
Creations
Modified
Purposes
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Indeed, willingness to challenge professional economists and other experts is a foundation stone of democracy. If all we have to do is to listen to the experts, what is the point of having democracy?
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Experts
Willingness
Economists
Indeed
Stone
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People tend to think that numbers are quite objective, but numbers in economics are not like this. Some economists say they're like sausages: you don't know what they really are until you cut into them.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Numbers
Economists
Objective
Sausages
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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.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Crisis
Financial
Instruments
Preventing
Serious
Ban
Benefit
Complex
Long Run
Meltdown
Shown
Unless
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Why do tax havens exist? Because rich countries allow them to. If the U.S. came down on tax havens in the same way they come down on countries that trade with Iran and Cuba, we'd have no tax havens in the world.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Cuba
Iran
Rich Countries
Trade
Tax
Haven
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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 / Economist
Ambition
People
Thinking
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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 / Economist
Country
Historical
People
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To put it bluntly, there isn't one economic theory that can single-handedly explain Singapore's success; its economy combines extreme features of capitalism and socialism. All theories are partial; reality is complex.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Capitalism
Economic
Economic Theory
Features
Singapore
Socialism
Theory
Extreme
Complex
Explain
Partial
Theories
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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 / Economist
Choices
Failing
Looks
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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 / Economist
Cutting
Doe
Simple
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Sometimes people with strong ideology, whether left-wing or right-wing, refuse to do something simply because they believe it is wrong, when doing it actually benefits them. For some people, it's not just about money and political power.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Benefits
Ideology
Left Wing
Political Power
Right Wing
Power Money Political
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We need to accept that consumption is not the end goal of our life and stop measuring our well-being simply on the basis of earnings. We need to explicitly take the quality of our work-related life into account in judging our well-being.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Consumption
Judging
Measuring
Well Being
Account
Basis
Earnings
Explicitly
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The truth is that the free movement of goods, people, and money that developed under British hegemony between 1870 and 1913 - the first episode of globalization - was made possible, in large part, by military might rather than market forces.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Globalization
Goods
Hegemony
Truth Is
Developed
Episode
Forces
Large Part
Market Forces
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Free market economists frequently see minimum wage legislation as mere political intervention. However, there are decent economic theories which show that, under certain circumstances, minimum wages can be beneficial, as it makes workers more productive.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Beneficial
Circumstances
Decent
Free Market
Legislation
Mere
Minimum
Minimum Wage
Workers
Economists
Frequently
Theories
Wage
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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 / Economist
Country
Past
Rich Countries
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I've read quite a few readers' reviews of my book on Amazon, saying, 'Ah, he criticises the free market, he advocates central planning.' I don't do that for a minute! But this is our black and white, dichotomous way of thinking - which has really been harmful.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Black And White
Book
Free Market
Planning
Reviews
Advocate
Ah
Central
Harmful
Market
Minute
Readers
Saying
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What free-market economists are not telling us is that the politics they want to get rid of are none other than those of democracy itself. When they say we need to insulate economic policies from politics, they are in effect advocating the castration of democracy.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Advocating
Economic Policies
Policies
Rid
They Say
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The feeling of insecurity is inimical to our sense of wellbeing, as it causes anxiety and stress, which harms our physical and mental health. It is no surprise then that, according to some surveys, workers across the world value job security more highly than wages.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Causes
Insecurity
Mental Health
Security
Stress
Surprise
Surveys
Wages
Wellbeing
Workers
According
Across
Highly
Job Security
Mental
Physical
Value
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Basically, the myth is that America has been founded on the free market; the government has done very little; it has thrived under free trade. But actually, if you look at the history, this is actually the country that has succeeded most with protectionist policies.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Free Market
Myth
Thrive
Trade
Founded
Policies
Succeeded
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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 / Economist
Country
Rich Countries
Socialism
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I am one of the most successful economists, according to what markets tell us, though most of my professional colleagues, who are much keener to accept market outcomes than I am, would dismiss me as a crank or - the worst of all abuses among economists - a 'sociologist.'
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Abuse
Colleagues
Crank
Outcomes
According
Dismiss
Economists
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Contrary to what professional economists will typically tell you, economics is not a science. All economic theories have underlying political and ethical assumptions, which make it impossible to prove them right or wrong in the way we can with theories in physics or chemistry.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Chemistry
Contrary
Ethical
Impossible
Physics
Prove
Assumptions
Economists
Professional
Theories
Underlying
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In the 19th century, a lot of people were against outlawing child labour, because to do so would be against the very foundations of a free market economy: 'These children want to work, these people want to employ them... what is your problem? It's not as if anyone has kidnapped them...'
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Free Market
Labour
Market Economy
Employ
Foundations
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Imagine if all those kings and dukes hadn't commissioned those crazy cathedrals, paintings and music... we'd still be living in sticks and mud. Because none of those things made any economic sense. Human beings' capacity to 'waste time' is a miracle - but that's exactly what art is for.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Capacity
Cathedrals
Economic
Human Beings
Imagine
Miracle
Mud
Sticks
Waste
Time Art Music
Beings
Art Time Music
Commissioned
Exactly
Exactly What
None
Paintings
Waste Time
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Patent monopoly creates a lot of problems. It allows the patentee to charge the maximum to consumers. This may not be a problem if the patented product is a luxury item, like parts that go into a smartphone, but can violate basic human rights if it involves things such as life-saving drugs.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Basic Human Rights
Consumers
Human Rights
Life Saving
Luxury
Maximum
Monopoly
Charge
Creates
Involves
Item
Patent
Patented
Violate
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In manufacturing, where mechanization and the use of chemical processes are much easier, it is easier to raise productivity than in services. In contrast, by their very nature, many service activities are inherently impervious to productivity increase without diluting the quality of the product.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Quality
Economics
Use
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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 / Economist
Running
Long
Pie
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Charities are now working to give people in poor countries access to the Internet. But shouldn't we spend that money on providing health clinics and safe water? Aren't these things more relevant? I have no intention of downplaying the importance of the Internet, but its impact has been exaggerated.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Health
Access
Exaggerated
Impact
Importance
Intention
Poor
Providing
Relevant
Safe
Water
Charities
Clinics
Countries
Spend
No Intention
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Many financial and industrial companies have been bailed out with the public's money, but very few of those who had run those companies have been punished for their failures. Yes, the top managers of those companies have lost their jobs - but with a fat pension and mostly with a handsome severance payment.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Handsome
Managers
Payment
Fat
Failures
Industrial
Punished
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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 / Economist
Running
Business
Long
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People always think they're in the middle of a revolution while they tend not to realize the enormity of a change that has happened in the past. The telegraph was a revolution, but who looks at it that way these days? The telegraph sped up the transportation of messages over long distances by a huge factor.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Messages
Revolution
Telegraph
Transportation
Distances
Enormity
Factor
In The Past
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Markets are, in the end, man-made devices for utilitarian purposes, not a force of nature that we should not try to resist. If they end up serving the interests of only a tiny minority, as is increasingly the case, we have the right - and indeed the duty - to regulate them in the interest of greater social good.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Devices
Force
Greater
Serving
Social
Tiny
Utilitarian
Case
Man-Made
In The End
Indeed
Interests
Minority
Purposes
Regulate
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Gone are the days when the upper classes were terrified of the angry mob wanting to smash their skulls and confiscate their properties. Now their biggest enemy is the army of lazy bums, whose lifestyle of indolence and hedonism, financed by crippling taxes on the rich, is sucking the lifeblood out of the economy.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Angry
Army
Indolence
Lazy
Lifestyle
Terrified
Bums
Classes
Crippling
Financed
Lifeblood
Mob
Properties
Smash
Sucking
Upper
Wanting
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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 / Economist
Loyalty
Honesty
Important
Self
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The higher education system in these countries (US, Korea etc) has become like a theatre in which some people decided to stand to get a better view, promoting the others behind them to stand. Once enough people stand, everyone has to stand, which means no one is getting a better view, while everyone has become more uncomfortable.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Country
Mean
Views
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A lot of things that we cannot buy and sell in markets used to be totally legal objects of market exchange - human beings when we had slavery, child labour, human organs, and so on. So there is no economic theory that actually says that you shouldn't have slavery or child labour because all these are political, ethical judgments.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Legal
Economic Theory
Ethical
Labour
Organs
Theory
Exchange
Judgments
We Cannot
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Economics should be defined in terms of what it is about. It should be about how people produce things, how people exchange them, how people earn income, how they pay taxes, how the government provides infrastructure with tax revenue, and how it conducts monetary policy. The subject has to be defined in terms of the object of inquiry.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Defined
Economics
Income
Infrastructure
Inquiry
Monetary
Monetary Policy
Pay
Policy
Produce
Revenue
Tax
Exchange
Earn
Object
Provides
Terms
Subject
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The days are over when technology can be advanced in laboratories by individual scientists alone. Now you need an army of lawyers to negotiate the hazardous terrain of interlocking patents. Unless we find a solution to the problem of interlocking patents, the patent system may actually impede the very innovation it was designed to encourage.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Technology
Army
Innovation
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Between the Great Depression and the 1970s, private business was viewed with suspicion even in most capitalist economies. Businesses were, so the story goes, seen as anti-social agents whose profit-seeking needed to be restrained for other, supposedly loftier, goals, such as justice, social harmony, protection of the weak and even national glory.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Capitalist Economy
Goal
Justice
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It takes time and experience to absorb new technologies, so technologically backward producers need a period of protection from international competition during this period of learning. Such protection is costly, because the country is giving up the chance to import better and cheaper products. However, it is a price that has to be paid if it wants to develop advanced industries.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Technology
Country
Giving Up
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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 / Economist
Democracy
People
Political
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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 / Economist
Technology
Hair
Korea
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Above a certain level of income, the relative value of material consumption vis-a-vis leisure time is diminished, so earning a higher income at the cost of working longer hours may reduce the quality of your life. More importantly, the fact that the citizens of a country work longer than others in comparable countries does not necessarily mean that they like working longer hours. They may be compelled to work long hours, even if they actually want to take longer holidays.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Country
Holiday
Mean
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The widely accepted assertion that, only if you let markets be will everyone be paid correctly and thus fairly, according to his worth, is a myth. Only when we part with this myth and grasp the political nature of the market and the collective nature of individual productivity will we be able to build a more just society in which historical legacies and collective actions, and not just individual talents and efforts, are properly taken into account in deciding how to reward people.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Effort
People
Taken
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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 / Economist
Opportunity
Running
Race
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All the alleged key causes of SOE [State-Owned Enterprise] inefficiency - the principal-agent problem, the free-rider problem and the soft budget constraint - are, while real, not unique to state-owned enterprises. Large private-sector firms with dispersed ownership also suffer from the principal-agent problem and the free-rider problem. So, in these two areas, forms of ownership do matter, but the critical divide is not between state and private ownership - it is between concentrated and dispersed ownerships.
Ha-Joon Chang / Economist
Keys
Real
Unique
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Ha-Joon Chang Quotes - Page 2

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