The fall of Chile is a warning to America

Washington Examiner ^ | 18 Mar 2021 | Stephen Moore

[Rummyfan]

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.

[FLT-bird]

Yes. It doesn’t bother me at all. The Commies wouldn’t have hesitated to do the same or worse and have every time they’ve taken power anywhere.

[Big Red Badger]

“Nicer Company”,
Yup
That’s Me!
I’m getting an RV and a
Small dog.
I’ll count as many Sunsets
as the Good Lord allows
with a cup of coffee, some New Friends and a
Marlboro.

[fr_freak]

Cant read article but from my business activity there from 2011 to 2017 I saw it was the Marxists from inside the country to blame. The local business people call it the Latin Curse.

Well, my WAG as to the cause of the "Latin Curse" is the concept of democracy. The Founders of the USA knew it was one of the worst forms of government, but Latin America (and much of the rest of the world) has embraced la democracia as the end-all be-all of governmental systems, and thus ends up in the same endless cycle of democracy-corruption-tyranny-revolution-democracy.

As distasteful as it may be to say it out loud, most people are not fit to vote. They are either too stupid, too selfish, too lazy, too covetous, or too gullible. Our Forefathers knew this, and so limited the franchise to men who had proved themselves AND had a stake in limited government - landowners over a certain age. These tended to be men who were self-sufficient and had little use or patience for power in the hands of elected layabouts.

You give everyone the vote and all the lazy and greedy ones will vote for more free money and the stupid and gullible ones will vote for whatever the shysters tell them. I think it's quite clear that the downfall of any democracy begins with increasing the franchise to include everyone, because the greater the percentage of voters, the easier it is to corrupt and sucker them. You'll notice that, in the USA, it has been a steady march to increase the franchise to more and more people, and we've ended up with greater and greater centralized power and corruption.

The only reason that the USA had not followed the same pattern as the latin American countries is that our Founders started us off with an advantage - a limited franchise. But that's over, and has been for a while.

[Big Red Badger]

Join the War or
Be CANCELLED.
.
Let’s think about that.

[KevinB]

That is an awesome story!

[mosesdapoet]

Thanks for the imput. Most of the postings in FR about Chile were about the attacks on Catholic churches. Where no such analysis was given as to the reasons .This comes as a surprize

[Big Red Badger]

You said It,
Out Loud,Friend.
.
Thanks

[Fred Hayek]

Mi General, Augusto Pinochet!

[Hootowl]

I manage to avoid complete despair by reminding myself that this world is not my home.

[5th MEB]

I’m more than willing to join the war, ON THE CONSTITUTION’S SIDE!!

“I will support and defend the CONSTITUTION of the UNITED STATES against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC”.

That’s the oath I took back in 1968, in my mind it hasn’t changed since, and I haven’t been relieved of that oath.

[DeweyCA]

Authoritarians think that they are special and should be in charge of everything so that they can create a utopia. Their ego and arrogance leads them to think that they are intellectually and morally superior to the rest of us. Leftists around the world suffer from this delusion. It is their religion of self-worship.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Ping

[Jan_Sobieski]

Nice! The pro-communist loser “Sting” wrote a song about Pinochet in the 80s. I always thought Pinochet was more of a anti communist hero...

Sting - “They Dance Alone”

...
Hey Mr. Pinochet
You've sown a bitter crop
It's foreign money that supports you
One day the money's going to stop
No wages for your torturers
No budget for your guns
Can you think of your own mother
Dancin' with her invisible son
They're dancing with the missing
They're dancing with the dead
They dance with the invisible ones
Their anguish is unsaid
They're dancing with their fathers
They're dancing with their sons
They're dancing with their husbands
They dance alone They dance alone

[Wonder Warthog]

"I was able to read it and post it w/o subscribing so I don’t know what the deal is....."

I use Brave, which sometimes triggers "things" when it blocks sites marketing pitches, so could be that.

[Pollard]

The Marxists invented a narrative of “inequality,” “the rich were getting richer, and the poor were getting poorer,” and capitalism is evil.

They infiltrated all of Chile’s cultural institutions: the media, the schools, the universities, the Catholic Church, the arts, the unions, and even the corporate boardrooms. They spread their poisonous creed of collectivism to the populace.

Is any of this sounding familiar to our situation today?

Eventually, the leftists pulled off a political coup. In 2013, the Left won the Chilean presidency. The free market reforms were systematically replaced with “spread the wealth” platitudes. In October 2020, voters approved a rewrite of the constitution, and now property rights and the rule of law are in danger.

Chile is now in economic free fall. The poor are getting crushed. The rich are pulling their money out of the country. They have arrived at “equality.” Nearly everyone is suffering.

[Pollard]

I'm so clever

[Mr. Jeeves]

What is it in human nature that makes us self-destructive?

The deep desire to live at everyone else's expense.

[spacejunkie2001]

Ultimately, the devil does not win.

[JimRed]

The same guy who gave commies free helicopter rides.

"Flying lessons"...if he learns to fly before hitting the ground, it's all good.

[rellic]

Oops!