23 Things they don't tell you about Capitalism

“Without our active economic citizenship, we will always be the victims of people who have greater ability to make decisions, who tell us that things happen because they have to and therefore that there is nothing we can do to alter them, however unpleasant and unjust they may appear.”

Ha-Joon Chang takes aim at what he considers one of the most unfortunate results of free-market ideologies: passive resignation in the face of injustice. Using an inspirational tone, he coins a phrase designed to encapsulate and appeal to citizens’ sense of duty. However, some may struggle to translate Chang’s occasionally vague principles into actions they can take as individuals to shape the future.

“So, when free-market economists say that a certain regulation should not be introduced because it would restrict the ‘freedom’ of a certain market, they are merely expressing a political opinion that they reject the rights that are to be defended by the proposed law.”

While some analysts attempt to separate economics and politics into different spheres, Chang argues that they are inextricably linked. Judgments about political values necessarily inform analysis of economic policies. In his argument, Chang takes a favorite rhetorical and semantic stance of free-market capitalists, who equate free markets with freedom in general, and turns it against them, suggesting that such policies are founded on rejecting, not protecting, rights.

“Just think about the way in which General Motors has squandered its absolute dominance of the world car industry and finally gone bankrupt while being on the forefront of shareholder value maximization by constantly downsizing and refraining from investing.”

This quote demonstrates Chang’s pattern and aptitude for using historical anecdotes to support his ideas. Of course, history’s events are subject to multiple interpretations, but Chang’s commentary is at least sufficient to offer one viable interpretation within the context of his informal (nonacademic) tone. A large company with a storied history and a wide consumer base, General Motors is at once a symbol of US industry and a warning about potential decline.