‘Another thing’ paper (20%) – On Sept. 13, we are reading ‘Thing 1’ from Ha-Joon Chang’s book 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism. For this paper, I would like you to choose one of the...

Introduction
“Big government makes people more open to change”. This is one of the claims made by Ha-Joon Chang, a well-known Guardian columnist and professor at Cam
idge's Political Economy of Development, in "Thing 21" of his book "23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism." In this book, Chang challenges conventional economic thinking and provides a fresh perspective on understanding global economic thought. The 23 items represent a diverse range of economic theories. from overused statements like "There is no such thing as a "free" market," to stranger claims like "the washing machine has transformed the world more than the internet has," Chang offers a thorough critique of free markets and globalisation in the book.
The book is intended for a large readership. It is simple to read and accessible to a wider audience than only academic economists. One of the questionable aspects of the work is the fact that he used so few sources as references. I'll delve more deeply into one of Chang's 23 points in this piece. "Big government increases people's receptivity to change," says Thing 21.
Chang’s Statement
This essay is on Thing 21 from Chang's book. This statement's main takeaway is that Neo-Classical economists contend that the incentive to labour is significantly diminished in welfare states with substantial social security programmes. This is as a result of the respectable reservation choice. Not all of the wealth is lost when you lose your work. Unemployment will result from the diminished incentive to work, having a negative effect. Chang disputes this, claiming that people are more willing to take risks when there is a social safety net in place. And this will lead to a more efficient allocation of skilled individuals within an economy.
Chang makes a point of illustrating this by
inging up two distinct nations. Both nations will display a protest against the traditional economic way of thinking. He begins with the USA, which has a weak safety net. It's simple to fire employees, and the pay is either nonexistent or extremely poor. This leads me to the conclusion that being dismissed also results in losing health insurance. Following his discussion of this incident, he moves on to the South Korean situation, where the government sought to create a flexible labour market by lowering job security. But the opposite occu
ed, not the labour market becoming more flexible. Korean students opted for "sunset" careers like driving cars since they ca
y no danger. The kids' lack of selection of "sunrise" creates a concern for the future. These are riskier occupations, such as bioengineering. Chang draws the conclusion that lessening job security does have a detrimental impact on a flexible market that requires more risk-takers.
Hu-Joon Chang’s opinion
The central contention of "Things 21" is whether or not security nets, or unemployment benefits in a larger sense, are required to achieve low unemployment. Security nets come in many forms, including universal...