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" I think this notion that public enterprises do not work and therefore nationalization will be a disaster, I mean, it's not supported by evidence. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Disaster
Think
Work
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" 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
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" 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
Because
Used
Most
" I don't drink at lunchtime because I'm very weak at alcohol like most Asians. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Drink
Alcohol
Weak
" The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history. "
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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
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" Overcoming the myth that there is such a thing as an objectively defined 'free market' is the first step towards understanding capitalism. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Understanding
Step
Overcoming
" 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
Success
Capitalism
Reality
" 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
Work
Women
Structure
" 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
Growing Up
Growing
Early
" As a consumer, I don't create art, but I think whatever the message is, art has to touch you. "
Ha-Joon Chang
You
Touch
Think
" The economy is much bigger than the market. We will not be able to build a good economy - nor a good society - unless we look at the vast expanse beyond the market. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Look
Economy
Good
" 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
Society
Run
Serious
" 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
Look
History
America
" 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
Politics
They Say
Democracy
" When we assess the impact of technological changes, we tend to downplay things that happened a while ago. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Things
Technological
Impact
" Instead of reading a paper, we now read the news online. Instead of buying books at a store, we buy them on-line. What's so revolutionary? The Internet has mainly affected our leisure life. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Reading
Life
News
" 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
People
Say
You
" I'm not an anti-capitalist, or anarchist. I want capitalism to work. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Anarchist
Work
Capitalism
" 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
Truth
People
Money
" 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
Impossible
Science
You
" 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
Angry
Lazy
Mob
" 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
See
Free
Political
" It is one thing to tell the citizens of some faraway country to go to hell, but it is another to do the same to your own citizens, who are supposedly your ultimate sovereigns. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Tell
Same
Country
" 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
Limitations
Democracy
End
" 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
World
Tax
Rich
" 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
Power
Money
Political
" 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
Luxury
Human Rights
Problems
" 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
Science
Physics
Chemistry
" 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
Thinking
Black And White
Book
" 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
Try
Good
End