"Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective by Ha-Joon Chang"

"How did the rich countries really become rich? In this provocative study, Ha-Joon Chang examines the great pressure on developing countries from the developed world to adopt certain 'good policies' and 'good institutions', seen today as necessary for economic development. His conclusions are compelling and disturbing: that developed countries are attempting to 'kick away the ladder' with which they have climbed to the top, thereby preventing developing countries from adopting policies and institutions that they themselves have used."

https://www.amazon.com/Kicking-Away-Ladder-Development-Persp...

"Kicking away the ladder"

https://www.amazon.com/Kicking-Away-Ladder-Development-Persp...

The US industrial revolution was from Samuel Slater memorizing detailed plans of British textile mills and their machines and bringing them here.

Yeah Asian tigers mostly didn't follow the narrow comparative advantage guidance and instead did state protection of industry to develop it: https://www.amazon.com/Kicking-Away-Ladder-Development-Persp...

The US did the same when it was young, along with large instances of exfiltrating tech (Samuel Slater, kicked off the American industrial revolution).

A different take: https://www.amazon.com/Kicking-Away-Ladder-Development-Persp...

Was Zuck taking some Business & Econ classes in his school days? This is from 2002:

https://www.amazon.com/Kicking-Away-Ladder-Development-Persp...

And it's not a new thesis, it has been noticed by various intellectuals at least for last 200 years.

Another relatively recent book on this topic: https://www.amazon.com/Kicking-Away-Ladder-Development-Persp...

Well put, then there's historical facts of countries using protectionism to make themselves developed.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1843310279

>The benefits of open and free markets are obvious.

All "developed" countries were heavily protectionist in their formative years. Only now that they have some economic power in the world, they're trying to impose asymmetrical "free trade" agreements on nations which are not developed and force them to abandon protectionism. These are just the facts.

>I think you're overplaying the perceived benefit of protectionism.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1843310279

> Maybe it improved the life of many more Chinese than it did worsen that of people from the rest of the world

And maybe not. China is not exactly a free trade zone. There was a book written about it: http://www.amazon.com/Kicking-Away-Ladder-Development-Perspe...