9 "kicking away the ladder."

I had a very "interesting" guest lecturer yesterday in my International Development class who talked us through, or tried to at least, the idea of institutions, organizations, markets, hierarchies, accountability, comparative advantage, etc etc, the list goes on. His obvious frustration with people not having read the readings, or in my case not having understood a word of it, only pushed people to try to impress him which in the end worked in some cases, but in mine, failed. But! There was one idea that I rest on that had some meaning - the idea of developed nations "kicking away the ladder" of economic development. In the book so titled "Kicking Away the Ladder" by Ha-Joon Chang, we read the first two chapters which offered historical accounts of the NDCs (now-developed countries) on their road to initial development. The issue: presently, countries are claiming (or in some cases, are forcing) developing countries to begin/continue economic development with low tariffs, which the author describes as completely opposite to the way that which the NDCs became developed in the first place. Britain, the US (especially us!), and other countries that are now considered wealthy and industrialized, all started with high tariffs and infant industry protection ideals, something that they now preach to developing countries NOT to do. This historical look seems to claim that developed nations are essentially pulling away the ladder and increasing the gap between wealthy and poor nations. But WHY?

While we were only required to read the first two chapters (which I chugged right on through), the author never really answered the Why question. Maybe he does further on in the book, but I'd like to postulate a bit on the topic. Are "we" (I say we because I do belong to a developed nation) doing this on purpose? Is this a conscious effort by the world's superpowers to always stay superpowers? I'm not one to believe in conspiracy theories, so this may just be something that we do sub-consciously. (I hope.) Obviously major contenders are popping up here and there, China being one example, India being another. But poverty and hunger are still rampant in these countries, not to mention the millions upon millions of babies that are born every second (I exaggerate a tad).

So then the question becomes this: Which is more important - economic development/growth or human development/growth? I personally know my opinion, but what about the governments of these nations? And what about the advisors from NDCs giving false hope in low tariffs? This doesn't have to be a zero-sum world, in my opinion. There can be a win-win-win-win... situation. So why can't we look out for everyone? Why can't we look back into our own history, one with record high tariffs, and say, gee whiz. Maybe we're giving the wrong advice. We sure should rethink this. If only, right?