Posted on 11/21/2013 6:31:06 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Only a few years ago it seemed that the free market changes in Chile had created an irreversible positive change. Over the last 30 years I have traveled frequently to the area and have witnessed that no other country in the region can boast of similar positive changes. Also, since the return to democracy, the presidential elections have been very competitive. Although the candidates have varied on their economic ideas, the differences between them were negligible. The left-center coalition that won last week’s election, however, has enough bad ideas and power in congress to put an end to the positive changes that were born out of the free market in Chile.
The new bad ideas, combined with the fact that on important issues Chileans have remained politically leftists, could lead to negative consequences for the free market. Recent survey results about the free market are baffling. The respected Latinobarómetro survey includes troubling responses to the statement, “The market economy is the only system that can lead a country to development.”
The responses were negative toward free-market ideas.
When asked about satisfaction with privatizations done in Chile in recent years, the responses were also very negative. The results of the survey bewilder me. Before the recent elections, whenever I visited Chile, especially if attending one of the annual events of the think tank Libertad y Desarrollo, I was confidently amazed by having policy experts from both political ideologies at my dinner table. I seldom find this camaraderie in other countries, even among free-market think tanks. Chile seemed an oasis of healthy consensus. As it looks now, this was a temporary consensus of a group within my world of economics. It is clear now that economics is not everything.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Sounds like the “teachers” in their education system as well as those on TV have been hard an work indoctrinating the Chilean masses to believe that free enterprise capitalism is evil.
They just need to look to America to see how much damage can take place in just a few short years once the communists, socialists and other leftist crazies gain power.
If living next-door to Argentina hasn’t taught ‘em anything, they just ain’t gonna learn.
Let’s face it folks, the trend in America is LEFTWARDS.
New York City, after 2 decades of peace and order, just elected a cop bashing, communist sympathizing, Mayor who yesterday, paid his respects to race hustler, Al Sharpton.
Virginia just elected the despicable Terry McCauliffe.
And of course, Albuquerque yesterday, voted to REFUSE to save viable babies who have been in their mother’s womb for over 20 weeks.
Each generation has to learn its lesson the hard way. We are living in that cycle. Chile will have to learn hers as well.
RE: from what I’ve read the leftward lurch in their body politic is once again being led by.....(sigh)women!
Nothing against women. Norway recently went RIGHT WARDS, led by — TWO WOMEN.
Look Chile is a nice place, but has a history all over the road politically.
As so quite a few countries American businesses are sending American jobs to.
We need to bring jobs back home to America.
An entire generation’s worth of outsourcing has badly weakened our once fabulous country.
Enough.
Bring back US jobs to America.
RE: We need to bring jobs back home to America.
Won’t happen unless:
1) We make it easier for business to profit. Adding a Medical Device tax, forcing small businesses to pay more for healthcare, ain’t gonna encourage businesses to expand here.
2) We have the HIGHEST CORPORATE TAX RATE IN THE WORLD.
3) Our tax and regulatory system is a mess. They keep changing and adding to it, making it extremely difficult for businesses to plan.
4) We have a government that makes it EXTREMELY DIFFICULT for us to reasonably exploit our natural resources (oil, natural gas, etc.), and is OPENLY HOSTILE against companies that provide energy ( COAL ).
Is it a surprise that businesses that can make things in a more business friendly country, MAKE THINGS THERE?
I have come to the sad conclusion that this Julia problem is for real, and we are going to be dealing with it for a very long time.
And apparently we are not the only country.
Each generation has to learn its lesson the hard way.
****************
Events are better teachers than words.
The idea of letting someone else take care of you is seductive.
The easy way is always perceived as the preferred route.
Let’s face it: there are almost always inevitable lurches to the left almost anywhere you look. In the US: with Teddy Roosevelt & the Progressives; Woodrow Wilson (probably the worst president ever or at least before the current placeholder); FDR; LBJ; and now this guy. England has gone through their versions. Fortunately for them, there was a good period of Margaret Thatcher’s governance. For America, we had our Reagan moment. Unfortunately, people don’t seem to be able to remember the way things were or what causes the problems societies have to deal with. Those who don’t understand history have to relive it.
It’s not actually a “women” problem, it’s a “single women” problem.
If you look at polls and separate the married from the unmarried, you find that Republicans win among married women. (Cuccinelli did recently, despite what you heard about his “woman” problem)
THe simple reason is that unmarried women have an inordinately high percentage of those dependent on government.
So it’s really a “marriage” problem, not a ‘women” problem.
This helps you understand why liberalism has an anti-marriage bias.
Greed and envy kill the golden goose.
Owners greedy and labor envy.
The money power has to be much smarter about keeping the masses at bay.
But the good work could not be allowed to live a full life. As in other "democracies," the unbeatable Marxist Left coalition of women, losers, homosexuals, and the willfully stupid aim to turn successful Chile into an economically failing Argentina look-alike. They will probably invent a racial minority, too.
BTW.... If one or two "Republicans" actually cared about reforming Social Security, they could study the Chilean system, which actually allows workers to retire. But the Left will wreck that, too.
Collectivists ruin EVERYTHING they touch.
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