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The unfairness of the world?

 


The book states that the West was quite disingenuous when dealing with Developing countries, especially regarding free trade, workers rights, industrialisation, and I might add corruption. That most of them had protectionism in one form or another too late in the last century and still do certain industries. "Only when the US achieved this position of dominance did it open its borders to free trade". They were more corrupt and less organised than most developing countries that they now look down upon with disdain. If they were put in the same period of development, they would fall far below average, and the only thing that is to their advantage is that they were the first, and after that, the book seems to indicate they closed the door behind them kicked the ladder.


I have had this book in my library for some time now, and I have tried to read it. Still, I just had not got the time. I have had the audible app for more than a year now, which has helped me read a lot more of the books that I ever expected. Still, not met my quota. Another app on the market called Blinkist summarises books into 15-minute presentations with the important points taken, and the book summarised into bullet points. Hence, I have decided to cut corners and read the summary because I lacked the time and get back to it may be some time in future. But, I have actually read another of Ha-Joon Chang books, titled 23 things they don't tell you about capitalism, and you find that some of the main points in that book are found here.


One of the important issues that were raised was one of the greatest economic countries in history. That things are not as clear cut as it seems, and it is strong strict government regulations that lead to its prosperity. That protectionism with custom tariff continued well into the last century. We have the advantage of seeing how well the US can act with its trade with China, which demonstrates that the trade is not as free as initially thought. The UK had a protection racket going on when during the middle ages of wool, England had a vast amount of wool but a deplorable textile industry. King Henry VII enforced laws that protected the textile industry. He banned the export of raw wool and poached skilful workers in Europe. Later in 1721, the government enforced the Calico Acts, which banned cotton textiles' import into the UK.


The book claimed that the British had not developed the industries of their colonies. They had stripped them of the raw materials but at the same time prevented any of these colonies from developing industries of their own. This did not work with their first colonies, consisting of European heritage like themselves. Hence in countries like the US decided to withdraw themselves from such an arrangement by declaring independence. Ha-Joon Chang said that the oversea colonies were deliberately kept poor to enrich Britain. In India, the British shamefully tried to kill the textile industry, only allowing them to wear textiles made in Britain. A form of defiance and a struggle for independence was for them to refuse to wear clothes produced in Britain from their cotton but wear clothes materials made from those locally produced by their local spinning wheels. Hence, why the spinning wheel symbol is in the centre of the Indian flag is a testament to their struggle for Independence.  Also, there is the shameful act of the Opium Wars and the subsequent treaties that China was forced to sign. To allow British goods and Opium from India to flood the market and acquiesce control of Hong Kong as a base of British traders. The Emperor of China noticed that it caused "widespread addiction in China, causing serious social and economic disruption". But you cannot blame the British entirely as it with Cocaine were still legal, and the effect on the populace was not studied until much later.  If you were afraid of what they did to other nations, consider what they did to their own citizens without establishing property rights. To develop their textile industry, the Crown seized private land and set it for grazing of sheep. They also had allowed the theft of inventions and ideas with laxity of copyright laws that allowed stealing ideas. Hence, it was perfectly legal to start producing a German product in Great Britain before 1835. Also, workers rights were in non-existence, like 15-hour workday and child labour. Those who read Charles Dickens books will have a clear understanding of 19th century Britain. Hence, the West complaining of the working conditions in China comes across as hypocritical.


For those too blind to notice China's current meteoric rise recently, Ha-Joon Chang said that a government must not be democratic to sustain continued economic growth. He noticed that at a time they were growing, they used various undemocratic ways to ensure growth. They were not fully democratic as women, and a certain proportion of the populace could not vote, especially if you did not have property. And the vote is something of being secret, which makes the election fairer was not until very recently. Hence, the American founding fathers were actually fighting for a few selected few's rights at the top, the "Crème de la Mer", which could be defined as the American aristocracy.  


Despite all that, the developing countries are going through and what is happening in them. They are fair, more equal, prosperous than the developed nations for their corresponding development historically. They have far stronger institutions and regulations and enforcement. Apart from there being vested interests against enforcement like the house of Lords who benefiting from slavery and child labour, there was no strong international consensus on the enforcement of any ban until quite recently.


China astronomical rate of development, and it's non-existent human rights record might seem an outliner. But the book states that it seems to be following a playbook set by the developed nations of the world who are hypocritical in enforcing rules that stop other nations from development. Africa might be stopped from developing when the powers still hold the keys to the kingdom or the promised land.


As a parent, one can understand the situation of the developed countries and the developing countries reaction to it. But we are building a fairer society and a more egalitarian one, already we avoided the errors of our colonial masters, and we are developing faster. While they are still far ahead, they are moving at a slower rate. Africa has to build stronger institutions that will enforce this for the benefit of all.  

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