The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions

by Jason Hickel

The Cambridge economist Ha-Joon Chang likes to illustrate the problems of this theory by using the example of his very young son, Jin-Gyu. If Jin-Gyu is going to have a chance at becoming something great and succeeding in the world, then he will need many years of parental protection and investment to make sure he stays healthy, attends a good school and has plenty of time to focus on his studies before being let loose into the world to make it on his own. But what if we were to apply the logic of free trade to the Chang family? We might say that little Jin-Gyu lives in an economic bubble, his parents subsidise his idle existence and he is protected from the harsh realities of competition. What he needs is to have the subsidies cut off, get a job and make a living for himself – this will force him to become productive and efficient. ‘But,’ Chang argues, ‘if I drive Jin-Gyu into the labour market at the age of six, he may become a savvy shoeshine boy or even a prosperous hawker, but he will never become a brain surgeon or a nuclear physicist – that would require at least another dozen years of my protection and investment.’6 ‘Likewise,’

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