# Quote — Chang Ha-Joon, Bad Samaritans

> Markets have a strong tendency to reinforce the status quo. The free market dictates that countries stick to what they are already good at. Stated bluntly, this means that poor countries are supposed to continue with their current engagement in low-productivity activities. But their engagement in those activities is exactly what makes them poor. If they want to leave poverty behind, they have to defy the market and do the more difficult things that bring them higher incomes—there are no two ways about it.

- Author: [Chang Ha-Joon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon.md)
- Book: [Bad Samaritans](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon/bad-samaritans.md)
- Page: 210
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ha-Joon_Chang#Bad_Samaritans:_The_Myth_of_Free_Trade_and_the_Secret_History_of_Capitalism_(2008)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon/bad-samaritans/markets-have-a-strong

## More from this book

> Countries are poor not because their people are lazy; their people are 'lazy' because they are poor.

p. 18 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon/bad-samaritans/countries-are-poor.md)

> Manufacturing is the most important...route to prosperity.

p. 215 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon/bad-samaritans/manufacturing-is-the.md)

> There is a big logical jump between acknowledging the destructive nature of and arguing that the lower the rate of inflation, the better.

p. 150 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chang-ha-joon/bad-samaritans/there-is-a-big.md)