23 Things they don't tell you about Capitalism

The central purpose of Ha-Joon Chang’s book is to push back against some of the most common beliefs held by those who favor free-market capitalism. Accordingly, he highlights at least three ways that such views fall short: in theory, in practice, and in values. Chang repeatedly asserts that the theories and assumptions underlying free-market capitalism do not hold up under scrutiny. First, Chang somewhat mischievously questions whether any market can be truly free, since all markets are bound by certain rules, such as prohibitions against slavery, guidelines for child labor, or the sale of political favors. While this is a semantic point, it highlights the contradictory views held by neoliberal economists, who are not necessarily as opposed to regulations as they claim to be. Chang then proceeds to dismantle a central assumption shared by free-market economic models: that people are best described as rational, self-interested beings. Instead, Chang suggests that human rationality is severely limited and that many human emotions and motivations exist alongside mere self-interest. As that central assumption crumbles, argues Chang, so do the free-market economists’ claims that the market is best left to its own devices.