Home / Quotes / Quote by Ha-Joon Chang

Quote by Ha-Joon Chang

“Above a certain level of income, the relative value of material consumption vis-a-vis leisure time is diminished, so earning a higher income at the cost of working longer hours may reduce the quality of your life. More importantly, the fact that the citizens of a country work longer than others in comparable countries does not necessarily mean that they like working longer hours. They may be compelled to work long hours, even if they actually want to take longer holidays.”

Quote by Ha-Joon Chang

Author

Ha-Joon Chang is a Korean-born economist known for his research on development economics and issues of globalization. His works, such as '23 Billion People's Challenge' and 'Kicking Away the Ladder', challenge traditional development theories and propose new models of development. more

You May Also Like

“Since the 1980s, we have given the rich a bigger slice of our pie in the belief that they would create more wealth, making the pie bigger than otherwise possible in the long run. The rich got the bigger slice of the pie all right, but they have actually reduced the pace at which the pie is growing.”

Long Running Belief Given Wealth Rich Growing Bigger Pace Long Runs Pie

Author:Ha-Joon Chang

“The top 10 per cent of the US population appropriated 91 per cent of income growth between 1989 and 2006, while the top 1 per cent took 59 per cent.”

Growth Population Income Inequality Cents Top 10

Author:Ha-Joon Chang

“The best way to boost the economy is to redistribute wealth downward, as poorer people tend to spend a higher proportion of their income.”

People Way Wealth Economy Higher Income Best Way Proportion Boost

Author:Ha-Joon Chang

“Others may write from the head, but he writes from the heart, and the heart will always understand him.”

Writing Heart May

Book:The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

Source: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

“People who live in poor countries have to be entrepreneurial even just to survive.”

People Country Poor Entrepreneurial Poor Countries

Author:Ha-Joon Chang

“I am beginning to believe that nothing can ever be proved. These are honest hypotheses which take the facts into account: but I sense so definitely that they come from me, and that they are simply a way of unifying my own knowledge. Not a glimmer comes from Rollebon's side. Slow, lazy, sulky, the facts adapt themselves to the rigour of the order I wish to give them; but it remains outside of them. I have the feeling of doing a work of pure imagination.”

Way Giving Believe Facts Feelings Order Wish Sides Imagination My Own Honest Pure Accounts Remains Lazy Hypothesis Unifying Rigour Sulky

Book:The diary of Antoine Roquentin

Source: The diary of Antoine Roquentin

“A story is a burden which must be carried with as much care as we carry a sleeping child”

Children Stories Care Sleep Burden Sleeping Child

Book:Roots of Survival: Native American Storytelling and the Sacred

Source: Roots of Survival: Native American Storytelling and the Sacred

“People 'over-produce' pollution because they are not paying for the costs of dealing with it.”

People Environment Produce Cost Sustainability Pollution Sustainable Development Green Living Sustainable Living Dealing With It Environmental Pollution Environmental Sustainability Sustainable Energy

Author:Ha-Joon Chang

“Between the Great Depression and the 1970s, private business was viewed with suspicion even in most capitalist economies. Businesses were, so the story goes, seen as anti-social agents whose profit-seeking needed to be restrained for other, supposedly loftier, goals, such as justice, social harmony, protection of the weak and even national glory.”

Stories Social Goal Justice Economy Needed Glory Weak Harmony Profit Seeking Protection Agents Capitalist Suspicion Great Depression Anti Social Capitalist Economy Social Harmony

Author:Ha-Joon Chang

“Equality of opportunity is not enough. Unless we create an environment where everyone is guaranteed some minimum capabilities through some guarantee of minimum income, education, and healthcare, we cannot say that we have fair competition. When some people have to run a 100 metre race with sandbags on their legs, the fact that no one is allowed to have a head start does not make the race fair. Equality of opportunity is absolutely necessary but not sufficient in building a genuinely fair and efficient society.”