Ha-Joon Chang, "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

.

 

Ha-Joon Chang, "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism" (2010)

 

 

런던대의 장하준 교수가 켐브리지의 경제학 교수로 있을 때 쓴 책이다. 전에 사둔 이 책을 Rutger Bregman의 "Utopia for Realists" 를 읽다가 생각이 나서 -- Bregman은 free-market 자본주의에 거슬르는 '보편적 기본소득'과 '노동 시간 단축'을 제안하고 있다 -- 이어서 읽었다. (이 책을 읽고 나니 마침  (온라인) 경향신문에 장하준 교수 인터뷰 기사가 올라와 있었다. 맨 밑에 그 링크와 발췌를 덧붙인다.)

 

저자는 서문에서, "이게 반자본주의 선언은 아니다. 자유 시장 주의에 비판적인 것이 자본주의를 반대하는 것과는 다르다"면서 "문제점과 한계에도 불구하고 자본주의는 여전히 인류가 창안한 가장 좋은 경제 시스템이라고 나는 믿는다"고 밝히고 있다. 이 점에서는 나도 같은 생각이다.

 

 

책에서 몇 구절 인용한다.

 

"Indeed, if the world were full of the self-seeking individuals found in economics textbooks, it would grind to a halt because we would be spending most of our time cheating, trying to catch cheaters, and punishing the caught. The world works as it does only because people are not the totally self-seeking agents that free-market economics believes them to be.” (p. 41)

 

"The free-market policy package, often known as the neo-liberal policy package, emphasizes lower inflation, greater capital mobility and greater job insecurity (euphemistically called greater labor market flexibility), essentially because it is mainly geared towards the interests of the holders of financial assets.... Inflation has become the bogeyman that has been used to justify policies that have mainly benefited the holders of financial assets, at the cost of long-term stability, economic growth and human happiness." (pp. 60-61)

 

"With only a few exceptions, all of today's rich countries, including Britain and the US -- the supposed homes of free trade and free market -- have become rich through the combinations of protectionism, subsidies and other policies that today they advise the developing “countries not to adopt.” (p. 63)

 

"Let us take the striking example of Switzerland. The country is one of the top few richest and most industrialized countries in the world, but it has, surprisingly, the lowest -- actually by far the lowest -- university enrolment rate in the rich world; until the early 1990s. only around one-third of the average for other rich countries." (p. 185)

 

"[T]he Scandinavian countries have higher social mobility than the UK, which in turn has higher mobility than the US. It is no coincidence that the stronger the welfare state, the higher the mobility. Particularly in the case of the US, the fact that low overall mobility is largely accounted for by low mobility at the bottom suggests that it is the lack of a basic income guarantee that is preventing poor kids from making use of equality of opportunity." (p. 220)

 

"Thus, exactly because finance is efficient at responding to changing profit opportunities, it can become harmful for the rest of the economy. And this is why James Tobin, the 1981 Nobel laureate in economics, tallked of the need to 'throw some sand in the wheels of our excessively efficient international money markets'. For this purpose, Tobin proposed a financial transaction tax, deliverately intended to slow down financial flows." (p. 241)

 

"There is no one ideal [capitalism] model.... For example, countries which find American-style economic inequality unacceptable (which some may not) may reduce it through a welfare state financed by high progressive income taxes (as in Sweden) ... So capitalism, yes, but we need to end our love affair with unrestrained free-market capitalism, which has served humanity so poorly, and install a better-regulated variety. What that variety would depend on our goals, values and beliefs." (p. 253)

 

"If we are really serious about preventing another crisis like the 2008 meltdown, we should simply ban complex financial instruments, unless they can be unambiguously shown to benefit society in the long run." (p. 254)

 

 

 

 

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

장하준 “한국, 1960년대가 아니라 1860년대로 가고 있다”

2023. 10.9. 경향신문

(런던대 장하준 경제학 교수를 방문한 한림대 신경아 사회학 교수의 인터뷰 기사)

 

장: 스웨덴은 성별 임금격차가 7.3%, OECD 평균이 11.9%, 한국은 33.1%이나 됩니다. 아주 격차가 작은 나라도 있는데 벨기에 1.2%, 콜롬비아 1.9%, 코스타리카 1.4%예요.

 

장 : 외주화로 임금을 깎고 노동조건을 악화시켜온 게 지난 40년간 신자유주의의 주요 무기였습니다. 한국은 90년대 말 외환위기부터, 미국은 80년대부터 시작했죠. 지금 대부분 국가를 보면 국민소득에서 노동 소득 비율이 계속 떨어지고 있어요. 노조가 약화돼 노동자의 협상력이 줄어든 영향도 있고 미국·영국 같은 국가들은 제조업을 등한시해서 질 좋은 일자리들이 없어진 이유도 있지만 또 하나 중요한 것은 노동시장 관행이 바뀐 거죠. 과거에는 경비원부터 조리사까지 포드면 포드, 뱅크 오브 아메리카라면 뱅크 오브 아메리카 직원으로 대접을 받았지만 이제 고용주들이 보기에 중요하지 않은 직업들은 다 외주화하면서 노동 조건이 악화된 겁니다.