Ha-Joon Chang
Ha-Joon Chang
Ha-Joon Changis a South Korean institutional economist specialising in development economics. Currently a reader in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge, Chang is the author of several widely discussed policy books, most notably Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective. Chang was ranked by Prospect magazine as one of the top 20 World Thinkers in 2013...
NationalitySouth Korean
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth7 October 1963
jobs people chance
A well-designed welfare state can actually encourage people to take chances with their jobs and be more, not less, open to changes.
different way very-good
There are different ways to organise capitalism. Free-market capitalism is only one of them-and not a very good one at that.
running opportunity race
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.
running business long
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.
taken people effort
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.
running pie long
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.
capitalist-economy justice goal
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.
important prosperity manufacturing
Manufacturing is the most important ... route to prosperity.
free-market
There is no such thing as a free market.
economic form worst
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, capitalism is the worst economic system except for all the other forms.
important-events printing invention
The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history.
democracy doe free-market
Democracy is acceptable to neo-liberals only in so far as it does not contradict the free market.
smart enough
We are not smart enough to leave things to the market.
block balance democracy
Democracy and markets are both fundamental building blocks for a decent society. But they clash at a fundamental level. We need to balance them.