How free market capitalism saved an entire nation from collapse. Is that true????

in #chile8 years ago


I found this article to be very interesting,

Chile, a Wealthy Version of a Shithole

They started doing well when they junked the Chicago Boys and reinstituted state intervention in the economy. Still, there was a massive wealth transfer under Pinochet from the bottom 2/3 to the upper 1/3. Labor got totally creamed, but that was the whole idea. Pinochetism was Class War from Day One.

Chile is a “wealthy shithole.” It’s sickening. They have one of the worst rich-poor gaps on Earth. The rich live like kings, but they have huge walls and gates around their homes, often topped with barbed wire. There is a tremendous amount of property crime, mostly the poorer 2/3 stealing stuff from their rich overlords (class war disguised as “street crime”. Do you understand what is going on here? The rich lived in armed and gated communities to ward off the teeming, thieving, miserable masses down below.

The poorer areas are teeming with crime, misery and gangs, but no one cares. The public schools are in ruins because the rich won’t pay for them, and they all send their kids to private school. The schools are literally falling apart. Literally. As in, the roofs are caving in.

I have met Chileans. Even so-called liberal Chileans display a shocking amount of racism and class hatred from a US point of view. It’s out in the open for all to see.

In Chile, a man must have “soft hands.” If you have “hard hands,” this means you work for a living, and you’re a no good scum. Soft hands means you don’t work with your hands, you’re not a laboring man.

The hatred and ridicule for the Indians is off the charts. I thought my ears were going to fall off when I heard it.

The class hatred in Chile is so thick you can cut it with a knife. The Left is radical, angry and miserable. It was armed all through Pinochet’s regime and carried out regular attacks, including an expertly pulled-off assassination attempt that nearly killed Pinochet and killed many people in his convoy. After Pinochet departed, the Left was still armed, and carried out bombings through the 1990’s. Under the Bush Administration, when Dan Quayle went to Chile, the day he showed up, he was greeted with several bombs.

Lately, the Left is not armed, but they still stage violent riots on a regular basis. The Right is also armed and very radical, and the military still effectively rules Chile. The death squad apparatus has not been dismantled. Chile is an example of extreme wealth disparity where both the Right and Left are totally polarized, very militant and dangerous.

The economy completley collapsed under Pinochet when he brought the Chicago Boyz in. The collapse was so hard that he threw the Boyz out and reinsituted heavy state intervention in the economy. For the rest of Pinochet’s term, the “growth” consisted of growing out of the horrific slump the Friedmanites had caused. When Pinochet left office, GNP per capita was the same as it was in 1973 under Allende. Pinochetism was a monumental failure in all ways except for Class War and mass wealth transfer.

I don’t care what Chile’s GNP is. It’s a shithole, and I don’t want to live there. I think Chile is the model for the US Republican Party.

Chile still has relatively good health figures due to the heavily socialist nature of its safety net. From the 1960’s-1973, a large safety net was installed in Chile, in particular, national health care. Chile’s good health figures are entirely due to this socialism.

As we know, capitalism is bad for your health. Or, capitalist health is an oxymoron.

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