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69 reviews for:
Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism
Ha-Joon Chang
4.05 AVERAGE
69 reviews for:
Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism
Ha-Joon Chang
4.05 AVERAGE
This book disproves the myths about free trade being always good, as well as a few other cliches (there's no such thing as good and bad culture for development, free markets don't bring democracy, protecting patents isn't always a good thing, etc.).
Excellent book and a real eye opener. Describes why neo-liberal economics are bad for developing countries, and how the rich countries today are "kicking away the ladder" for poorer countries by persuading them to adopt economic policies that they are not ready for.
I had a vague understanding that “Free Trade” is actually worse for the working class than we’ve been lead to believe. Developing nations have more success in growing their economies by installing protectorate tariffs, then slowly opening their markets over time. That’s how every powerful nation became powerful. But now the powerful nations are using their power to pressure weaker nations to eliminate any protectorate tariffs, causing more long-term harm to the people of that country. This is how neoliberals, the IMF, & the World Bank are actually neocolonialists: trying to drain the wealth from developing nations to further enrich wealthier ones.
Highly Recommended
Highly Recommended
challenging
informative
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
Not very well written, but full of interesting ideas and compelling examples, figures and anecdotes. As I'm not going to be setting any foreign development policies I'm not sure why I read it, but I feel better informed than I was.
It tries hard but kind of falls short in a lot of areas. It'll walk right up to really important points and then back away from them in a way you get a lot from academic books. This really comes to light at the end of the book, and in sections in which slavery is ignored as a huge factor in how colonial countries grew to power. What's the point in trying to debunk current economic myths if you're going to ignore one of the biggest factors in the birth of free market unbridled capitalism.
As a Libertarian, I approached BAD SAMARITANS on my guard against the author's message against free trade, but Chang Ha-Joon has succeeded in making me at least question a number of my basic assumptions about how economies develop. By any reasonable rubric, that's success indeed.
Amazing book. Shatters many myths about free trade and capitalism with the use of data and logic. Highly recommended for people who believe in free-market capitalism.
informative
fast-paced