As someone from a developing country, I have a problem with rich countries thinking they can tell us anything, simply because they are giving money. Ha-Joon Chang More Quotes by Ha-Joon Chang More Quotes From Ha-Joon Chang 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 legal child you slavery I don't drink at lunchtime because I'm very weak at alcohol like most Asians. Ha-Joon Chang like drink alcohol weak 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 end good duty nature 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 think you economics people When I was growing up in South Korea in the '70s and early '80s, the country was too poor to buy original records. Everything was bootlegged. Ha-Joon Chang everything growing-up poor country As a consumer, I don't create art, but I think whatever the message is, art has to touch you. Ha-Joon Chang whatever think you art 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 down rich way world When we assess the impact of technological changes, we tend to downplay things that happened a while ago. Ha-Joon Chang changes things happened impact I'm not an anti-capitalist, or anarchist. I want capitalism to work. Ha-Joon Chang anarchist capitalism want work Democracy, despite its limitations, is in the end the only way to ensure that policies do not simply benefit the privileged few. Ha-Joon Chang end only democracy way 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 things economics government people 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 professional i-am me colleagues Unfortunately, a lot of economists wanted to make their subject a science. So the more what you do resembles physics or chemistry, the more credible you become. Ha-Joon Chang you chemistry physics science I used to joke that I came to England - not to the U.S. where most Koreans go - because I like Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie. Ha-Joon Chang joke where go like 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 black-and-white black white thinking
