Should we make a community for fixing bad memes like antifastonetoss?
"The secret ingredient is corruption. Not too much, not too little."
Centroid moment
this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2022
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You joke (and rightly so), but... Ha-Joon Chang gives a good analysis of corruption in Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism.
He highlights Western hypocrisy about about bribes, etc, in the global south. But there's not necessarily anything wrong with bribery. From an economic standpoint. Regardless, Chang shows that the same thing happens in the West but under different labels. Lobbying, tenders, getting out of contracts legally, etc.
I don't think he's a Marxist, but he is worth reading (critically). But he presents the data that, as you say, enlightened centrists do agree:
“The secret ingredient is corruption. Not too much, not too little.”
What a world.
About Ha-Joon Chang, I am going to (critically, I think) read his "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism". Even he's not Marxist, his works may be useful for curing libs from their delusions about free market.
That's a good plan, comrade. He's a decent writer, too, so you should find his book enjoyable, on the whole. I've not read that one yet. Will you let me know what you think of it?
I finished the book. I would classify it as social-democratic. Ha-Joon Chang in few places repeats popular stereotypes about USSR, but he is not radical in this, and admits that the economic miracle of south eastern Asia was inspired, among others, by works of Marx. Also, in one or two places he writes that "communism felt" what is obviously untrue. He is thus a little bit westernized.
Besides these drawbacks, he is very good at showing many many problems with so called "free market capitalism". I would recommend this book for a liberal, who would be not open for Marx, to open her or his eyes to inherent problems with free market economies. This could be a bridge useful to convince it to ML later. For a ML reader, this book may be too basic and too obvious, but still it is well written and thus a pleasure to read.
Thanks for the update. I'll keep an eye out for it next time I'm in a charity shop. what are you reading next/now?
Now it is a Polish book about intelligence by Bolesław Hornowski, a researcher from the period of People's Republic of Poland. Then I will read selected works of Engels and Marx probably 🙂
You're non-stop! Hope you enjoy the texts.
Thank you 😊
The book is so pleasurable that I am already after half of it 😁
So far, I've read the first chapter "There's no free market" of the Polish translation and it was good. Short and convincing, maybe there could be more arguments but it is fine for a popular book. It still may be too difficult for libs 😁 I will read it rather slowly, because I have time for this only when I go to sleep and not every day. So far, it looks promising. When I will read significantly more, I will let you know 👍🏻
Thanks, Lemat. Sounds like a promising start.