23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

In this revelatory book, Ha-Joon Chang destroys the biggest myths of our times and shows us the truth about how the world really works, including: there's no such thing as a free market; the washing machine has changed lives more than the internet; people in poor countries are more entrepreneurial than in wealthy ones; and making rich people richer doesn't make the rest of us richer.

We don't have to accept things as they are. Ha-Joon Chang is here to show us there's a better way.

• Thing One: There is really no such thing as a free market.
• Thing Two: Companies should not be run in the interest of their owners.
• Thing Three: Most people in rich countries get paid more than they should.
• Thing Four: The washing machine has changed the world more than the internet.
• Thing Five: Assume the worst about people, and you get the worst.
• Thing Six: Greater macroeconomic stability has not made the world economy more stable.
• Thing Seven: Free-market policies rarely make poor countries richer.
• Thing Eight: Capital has a nationality.
• Thing Nine: We do not live in a post-industrial age.
• Thing Ten: The US does not have the highest living standard in the world.
• Thing Eleven: Africa is not destined for under-development.
• Thing Twelve: Government can pick winners.
• Thing Thirteen: Making rich people richer doesn’t make the rest of us richer.
• Thing Fourteen: US managers are over-priced.
• Thing Fifteen: People in poor countries are more entrepreneurial than people in rich countries.
• Thing Sixteen: We are not smart enough to leave things to the market.
• Thing Seventeen: More education in itself is not going to make a country richer.
• Thing Eighteen: What is good for the General Motors is not necessarily good for the US.
• Thing Nineteen: Despite the fall of Communism, we are still living in planned economies.
• Thing Twenty: Equality of opportunities is unequal.
• Thing Twenty-one: Big government makes people more, not less, open to changes.
• Thing Twenty-two: Financial markets need to become less, not more, efficient.
• Thing Twenty-three: Good economic policy does not require good economists.
• Conclusion: How to rebuild the world economy

Reading this book was a pure love affair! Not that I always agree with his conclusions, but he made me think and challenged a lot of my own assumptions. And he did it in very nice prose, with a lot of anecdotes (lacks a bit of references to be a truly academic work).

Whatever your view of capitalism is, this is a must read! A pleasure to read.