The fall of Chile is a warning to America

Back in the 1970s, the nation of Chile embarked on one of the boldest sets of free market economic reforms in history. The government called in the Chicago Boys, as they were called, led by Milton Friedman and other University of Chicago free market economists

They were given a free hand to redesign the Chilean economic system with property rights, a low flat tax, privatization of the Social Security system, and industry deregulation. In 1991, Friedman wrote that Chile now has "the three freedoms: economic freedom, political freedom, and human freedom. It will be interesting to see if they can keep it.

For four decades, the experiment worked better than anyone could have imagined. According to a study by economist Axel Kaiser for the Cato Institute: "Between 1975 and 2015 per capita income in Chile quadrupled to $23,000, the highest rate in Latin America (CNP 2016). As a result, from the early 1980s to 2014, poverty fell from 45 percent to 8 percent (CNP 2016)." Chile became one of the wealthiest nations in South America. And it happened in three decades, an eye blink of history.

The sexual abuse of minors by clergy of the Catholic Church in Chile and the failure of Church officials to respond and take responsibility attracted worldwide attention as a critical failure of Pope Francis and the Church as a whole to address the sexual abuse of minors by priests.

Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Chile - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse...
Catholic Church Faces Reckoning in Chile as Sex Abuse ...
www.nytimes.com › World › Americas
Jul 31, 2018 — The Vatican investigators issued a 2,300-page report based on 64 interviews, accusing Chilean church leaders of failing to investigate credible ...
Chile: Catholic bishops apologize for failing sex abuse victims ...
www.dw.com › chile-catholic-bishops-apologize-for-fai...
Aug 4, 2018 — Chilean prosecutors said last week they are investigating 158 members of the church, including priests, clerics and laypeople. .

Thanks Cuttnhorse for the insights of one who has been there and lived there.

In this country there are a number of universities with agricultural engineering departments. Ag-Eng students were like the science and engineering majors - politically conservative. The only liberals in the sciences were a few coeds. Of course the guys generally avoided them.

Do the Chilean universities have ag-eng departments? Or is there an effort to discourage step change in agricultural efficiency because of perceived threat to the manual labor?

Would you consider Chile a safe country to visit? If yes, what are the 2 places that are must visit? I had an engineering prof from Peru. He said never to go there, even he would not go back, because it is very corrupt and dangerous. That was when Sendero Luminoso was making headlines all the time. Not sure that country has changed significantly. Chile at that time had not turn itself around.

Someone named Pinera ran the country recently...

Sebastián Piñera is the current President of Chile. I have friends and distant relatives there who rightly blame him for the growing crime and anarchy in the country. His problem is that he's deadly afraid of being labeled "fascist" and "violating human rights". As a consequence, he refuses to seriously combat the growing epidemic of crime and terrorism. Instead he dodges the issue with bloviating platitudes about a "grand national accord".

As in the USA, these thugs and hooligans have a political constituency that bends over backwards to justify their behavior.

Part of his cowardice is blowback from decades of propaganda and lies about the military government of 1973-1990. In fact dozens of Chile's military heroes from this period have been imprisoned under contrived charges of "crimes against humanity" (delitos de lesa humana). This makes a poor example for anyone who's willing to take firm measures to restore order.

People think freedom and happiness are synonymous. Freedom just gives you the right to pursue happiness but it must be pursued, which is hard work. Utopian activists promise happiness if you cede freedom and they begin a war on human nature to achieve that happiness. Many socialist movements eventually acknowledge that human nature is resistant to change, even after draconian measures which kill millions.

Here in the United States, the relative happiness of the people make it much more doubtful that large numbers of people will voluntarily cede their freedom and join the revolution to sacrifice everything to it. So the socialist tactic is different. They don’t so much try to change human nature as they argue that you aren’t as happy as you think you are, or that your happiness is making other people miserable. It works by creating guilt in happy people. And instead of waging a war on human nature, socialists and others are waging a war on nature itself and demanding happy people join that war or be cancelled.

Yes, after getting all they could from interrogations, they were drugged (under guise of “inoculation” prior to being moved to a new prison camp in the mountains), loaded aboard a helicopter or cargo plane, then flown out over the ocean well away from shipping lanes and dropped from a couple thousand feet. “Disappearing” in this manner was considered more effective than execution, because the uncertainty gave their comrades nothing to go on...couldn’t hold them up as martyrs to the cause, declaim them as turncoats, hold protests for their release, take hostages, or attempt a raid on the prison...they were simply “gone”.

Several South American countries (Argentina and Uruguay come to mind) were involved with “disappearing” subversives that way in the 1970s and 80s, along with car bombs and other conventional assassinations. They even had an international joint-action program for it...”Operation Condor”.

Granted, the Argentinians “disappeared” about six times as many as did Chile, but Pinochet gets all the blame in the press.

Chile is very safe...no problem with renting a vehicle and driving yourself anywhere in the country. And the police are NOT corrupt...can’t say that about many places in South America.

I don’t know anything about the Ag Engineering programs at the universities. They have a very strong agriculture culture...a lot of the kids go to universities in the states and if I had to guess, that is where they go for the engineering part. The wineries are very modern...many are now owned by the large wine producers in the US. The influence of American ag practices in Chile really improved the industry.

Most tourists head south...the scenery is spectacular...think of British Colombia. There are many very modern cities and tour guides that offer just about anything you want.

The wife and I went on a 4-day horseback trip into a valley that could be Yosemite...only way in is hike or horseback.

I would recommend Puerto Montt...beautiful location, incredible beautiful lake nearby with a very neat volcano in the background. If you have Google Earth, enter Puerto Varas and check out Volcan Orsorno. You can also go to the nearby island of Chiloe which is very fun.

This is an interesting part of Chile as in the 1870’s it was opened to immigration from Germany...lots of Germans hacked out a living in this very difficult area and they still maintain many old German customs and language.

If you have the time, from Santiago head up the coast to La Serena. One of the nicest cities in South America. Lots of great restaurants, hotels and trips into the Andes from here. There are 6 or 7 celestial observatories within a 100 miles of La Serena so there is quite an ex-pat community of astronomers and some real pointy head types.

Really nice city...and you can easily do excursions to the Atacama desert from La Serena.

I worked 2 1/2 years in Peru and it is my favorite country in South America. The wife and I would rent a 4x4 pickup and we drove all over the country when I had time off.

Machu Pichu is really spectacular...it was when I was there in the late 90’s...I gather it is over-run with tourists now, but it is really neat.

As far as personal safety in Peru, if you stay in the tourist areas it is very safe. They even have a tourist police division that works very hard to make sure the tourists aren’t bothered. In Lima, the Miraflores area is clean, modern and safe.

I worked in some pretty sketchy places in Peru and always had an armed driver with me...the biggest danger was driving in the boonies on the weekends. The local villagers will often get roaring drunk and block roads and demand a toll to pass. It was best to pay and not make an issue...geez they can get loaded!!

The local buses are a source of mayhem in Peru...not sure what is going on now, but when I worked there the annual fatality count due to bus wrecks was over 250 per year.

The national bus system in Chile is very good...modern, inexpensive, clean busses, with TV, movies, an attendant, and a dry cheese sandwich on longer trips.

Well, that’s my 2-cents worth, good luck and don’t hesitate to travel to South America if you have the opportunity.

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