Countries are poor not because their people are lazy; their people are 'lazy' because they are poor. Ha-Joon Chang More Quotes by Ha-Joon Chang More Quotes From Ha-Joon Chang 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 failing choices looks Corruption often exists because there are too many market forces, not too few. Ha-Joon Chang force corruption There is no such thing as a free market. Ha-Joon Chang free-market People who live in poor countries have to be entrepreneurial even just to survive. Ha-Joon Chang poor country people 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 pie running long 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 views mean country Assume the worst about people and you get the worst. Ha-Joon Chang assuming worst people Manufacturing is the most important...route to prosperity. Ha-Joon Chang routes prosperity important Equality of opportunity is meaningless for those who do not have the capabilities to take advantage of it. Ha-Joon Chang economics advantage opportunity 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 capitalist-economy goal justice Financial markets need to become less, not more, efficient. Ha-Joon Chang financial-markets financial needs Democracy and markets are both fundamental building blocks for a decent society. But they clash at a fundamental level. We need to balance them. Ha-Joon Chang balance block democracy We are not smart enough to leave things to the market. Ha-Joon Chang smart enough There is a big logical jump between acknowledging the destructive nature of hyperinflation and arguing that the lower the rate of inflation, the better. Ha-Joon Chang hyperinflation logical arguing The washing machine changed the world more than the Internet. Ha-Joon Chang machines internet world 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 holiday mean country 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 economics quality use 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 honesty loyalty self 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 giving-up technology country It's not just about the current economic environment. History shows that slashing budgets always leads to recession. Ha-Joon Chang economic currents environment
