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Overview

In 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism Ha-Joon Chang explains why free market capitalism is not as great as most economists believe. He also offers solutions to the problems that are inherent in our current economic system.

Most of us don’t think about it, but we live in a capitalist society. What is capitalism? It’s the economic system that dominates today. We need to understand how it works and what it means for our lives.

The author will expose the workings of capitalism and its 17 inherent contradictions. He will take you on a journey through an economic engine, revealing its vast implications for the global economy.

Capitalism has many contradictions. Some of them are revealed only during a crisis, while others appear over time due to political and technological changes. Finally, some contradictions may even lead to the collapse of society or an economy.

By reading the book, you’ll learn why some people lost their homes during the 2008 housing crisis; how theft and swindling are at the forefront of capitalism; and why over 70 percent of full-time workers hate going to work.

Big Idea #1: The value of something is always subjective.

When you go to the supermarket, you exchange your money for food. This is because food has a purpose that money doesn’t: it can be eaten and used in other ways that cash cannot be.

Every item we purchase has two values: its usefulness and how much it’s worth. For example, a house can be used to provide shelter or as a symbol of status.

But if you were to exchange your house for something else, how would you measure its worth? One way would be to calculate the cost of raw materials and labor. In other words, the cost would be fixed based on what was paid to produce/build it.

However, in much of the capitalist world, speculation plays a big role in determining exchange value. For example, when buying a house, it’s not just about location and prestige; there are other factors that come into play as well – for instance, who owned the house before you and what kind of neighborhood is it located in.

Buyers and sellers are both interested in making a profit from any exchange, so they’re mostly concerned with the value of an item. However, that value can be affected by other factors as well. For example, when people buy houses to make money instead of using them for their intended purpose (to live in), it can lead to a crisis where there aren’t enough affordable housing options available.

A contradiction between property’s use and exchange value caused 4 million people to lose their homes due to foreclosure. This was because of a decrease in housing access, which led to a crash in the exchange value of real estate.

Big Idea #2: Money is contradictory. It has both private and public aspects to it, which can be confusing at times.

In order to exchange food and houses, we need a way to measure their worth relative to one another. That’s money – it represents what we value.

Money is a means of capturing value. There’s a gap between the money and what it represents, which creates a contradiction. Money used to represent physical labor, for instance five hours of roofing might have been worth five pieces of silver. Now, money doesn’t even represent physical labor; it just shows up as numbers in digitized bank accounts.

We’re left with a weird situation, where our bank account balances represent paper money that represents the labor of others.

In addition, when money is no longer a tangible object, it can be used in infinite amounts. Labor has limits because there are only so many people and resources available to use.