This man is one of the most ideological economists I have ever known. A 71% tarriff is relatively so low that it implies free trade? Wow.
I don’t think he has given due credit to other economists who have said that United States, with access to British foreign investment, British capital goods, and a British-established justice system, with a geographic position more convenient for Western European business houses who could travel faster by sea, was in a position to industrialise rapidly, even with tarriffs. This is such a selective comparison.
I find personall that Ha Joon Chang is pure politics and confirmation bias. It’s no surprise that the most ideological establishment Indians, who seem to deny facts in face of evidence, such as Mani Shankar Aiyar or Amartya Sen, are also from Chang’s Cambridge University.
Western Universities are some of the worst in the world because they are so horribly full of it and obsessed with social democracy. We can thank Western Universities for a couple dozen socialist revolutions.
Look at some despotic Third World leaders (democratic or otherwise) and the First World universities that produced them:
University of Pennsylvania produced Kwame Nkrumah. Cambridge produced a Thai strongman and Rajiv Gandhi. French universities produced Mao Tse-Tsung, Deng Xiaoping, Ho Chi Minh, Zhou Enlai, and god knows who else. The French hold a record here.
Remember, Rajiv Gandhi’s brother and mother were hardcore eugenicists and his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was a friend of G. B. “Better the poor die and people like me repopulate them” Shaw. The entire India between 1950 to 1980 was a Fabian Society experiment.
All of these Third World countries were experimental grounds for crazy ideas of some British, American, or French uni professor or the other.
Kaju, are you trying to play “gotcha” with how Ricky worded his statement, or do you have something substantial you’re getting at regarding the pernicious influence of many western university programs on third world governance?
Yes, they are. The University of Beijing is far less politically correct than American Universities, and there are more pro-marketeers than in any American school except for maybe Hillsdale or GMU. And the latter are nowhere near as prestigious or important, relatively speaking, as Beijing U. The former Dean of the Beijing Business School was an Austrian economist who harshly criticized the Chinese central bank. How many Harvard Professors are going to do that?
I don’t think Americans, even libertarian ones, realize how absolutely brain-dead and self-censoring people in the West are. In fact most libertarians still retain these asinine prejudices, such as populism, republican governance, qausi-egalitarian norms, etc. I sometimes wonder if they realize how obviously nonsensical it all is. Social Democracy is the religion of the West, and it infects even its ‘opponents’; just as the left-wing anti-Christians are just a variant of left-wing Christianity so the libertarian is often warped by democratic-republican-egalitarian culture. Thus all the populist crap and ‘let’s not offend women by talking about genetic differences’, etc.
Notice that it’s not always that they won’t admit it - even the mainstream Western media will - it’s that they won’t follow through on its implications because they’re socially trained not to. No sane person ever believed in equality, not Marx or Buddha. But they can train themselves to talk as though they did. It’s just like the religion thing, even though plenty of people know it’s hysterically incoherent nonsense that deserves less respect than the claim that sun-born leprachauns are stealing your money it is taboo to call people on their nonsense. We’re supposed to respect people’s religious delusions, whether they be Christian or Egalitarian. Do that enough and you start forgetting what a bunch of BS it is.
Just because they are less politically correct doesn’t mean they are better. The best professors still teach at western universities, and if you look at the top schools for each discipline, in practically every case they are almost always western universities.
They’re less politically correct because they’re better. They’re smarter, harder working, culturally superior, vastly more civilized and have personal social networks that do not rely on the State and are only rivaled by Jews (who are also better).
The best professors still teach at western universities, and if you look at the top schools for each discipline, in practically every case they are almost always western universities.
Circular nonsense. Of course the people who do best at left-wing propaganda mills work at the top left-wing propaganda mills. Universities are not education, and they’re hardly even a resource for learning except in subjects nobody can spin politically. Even there they suck because of their outmoded and warped incentives, spending money on useless things like giant campuses and Women’s Studies instead of imparting information. Economics, crap. Philosophy, crap. Sociology, not even a real science. Anthropology, crap. History, crap. Business, crap. Any kind of ‘science’ involving ‘climate change’, crap. What’s left? Math and physics. Where do they come from? India and China - even the ones that get their PhDs over here.
People who do well in universities are usually smart. The same goes for priesthoods, political office, management and sailing.
They’re less politically correct because they’re better. They’re smarter, harder working, culturally superior, vastly more civilized and have personal social networks that do not rely on the State and are only rivaled by Jews (who are also better).
Are you talking about the school faculty or the population in general? I agree that the general population is most likely harder working. Idk about smarter, and I don’t think they are culturally superior (Asian cultures are weird as hell). People in the west also have personal social networks that don’t rely on the state. As for vastly more civilized, I don’t know. The west is civilized, and it has been for a while.
Circular nonsense. Of course the people who do best at left-wing propaganda mills work at the top left-wing propaganda mills. Universities are not education, and they’re hardly even a resource for learning except in subjects nobody can spin politically. Even there they suck because of their outmoded and warped incentives, spending money on useless things like giant campuses and Women’s Studies instead of imparting information. Economics, crap. Philosophy, crap. Sociology, not even a real science. Anthropology, crap. History, crap. Business, crap. Any kind of ‘science’ involving ‘climate change’, crap. What’s left? Math and physics. Where do they come from? India and China - even the ones that get their PhDs over here.
I agree some subjects (I don’t even know what people learn in womans studies. It is completely useless) consist of little more than left wing talking points. However, this is not true nearly to the extent that you make it out to be. Economics is not useless as long as you take the right classes. Philosophy is pretty useless but it is decent if you want to go into law from what I hear. Sociology I assume is pretty useless, along with history and anthropology. Business is definitely not useless. I don’t know if you are saying that subjects in business colleges such as accounting and finance are useless, or if “business administration” is useless. The former is definitely not true at all. The latter isn’t as applicable but still not that bad. Could be worse. Then there is engineering and math, neither of which are useless.
As for the amount of left wing talking points espoused in the classes, it is mostly prominent in the social sciences (with the exception of economics). In business, engineering, math, economics, ect this is not really noticeable. It is also true that the top professors go to the top universities, which happen to be mostly in the west. Professors do not go to MIT or Chicago because they are the best at spreading left wing propaganda.
Eric, I’m saying that what you learn in Econ. and Philo. courses is not Economics or Philosophy and they suck and teaching it anyways.
I have taken econ and philo classes, and I learned econ and philo. My econ teachers were not that good but it didn’t matter as I find the subject interesting. My best teacher so far has been a philosophy teacher.
Ricky, you’re completely wrong. Western Universities, especially American and British ones, are the best in the world. That’s why the top 10 universities in any review is pretty much just American and British schools. American and British economics departments have contributed to the bulk of economic science in the last 100 years. American science departments are the absolute best in the world. These are undisputable facts.