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" It is impossible to objectively define how free a market is. This is a political definition. Government is always involved, and those free marketers are as politically motivated as anyone. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Free
Impossible
Political
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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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" 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
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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
Problem
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Children
" 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
Job
Mental Health
Health
" 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
Strategy
Know
Potential
" 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
" 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
Social
Time
Force
" 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
Challenge
Foundation
Stone
" 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
" 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'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
" 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
People
Think
Revolution
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" I like all kinds of music - classical, pop, rock, electronic. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Music
Kinds
Electronic
" The invention of the printing press was one of the most important events in human history. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Events
Most
Important
" When we assess the impact of technological changes, we tend to downplay things that happened a while ago. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Things
Technological
Impact
" 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
" 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'm not an anti-capitalist, or anarchist. I want capitalism to work. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Anarchist
Work
Capitalism
" 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
Life
Judging
Quality
" 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
People
Tax
Economics
" 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
Financial
Fat
Money
" 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
" 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
" Very often, the judgments by ordinary citizens may be better than those by professional economists, being more rooted in reality and less narrowly focused. "
Ha-Joon Chang
Professional
Better
Focused
" 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
" 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