"Chile, Latin America's poster child for economic stability, is set to grow a brisk 5 percent this year. But income inequality has barely budged since 1990 despite copper windfalls and it ranks the highest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)." --Rotters
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Aside from the incoherence of the phrase "poster child" to characterize a country--this Orwellian misuse of language--Venezuela and a number of other countries led by leftist governments are far more stable than Chile, due to leftist policies that HAVE addressed inequality. Venezuela, for instance, was recently designated "THE most equal country in Latin America" on income distribution, by the UN Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean. The Chavez government has also massively funded education and has doubled college enrollment. It has overseen stunning economic growth--a sizzling 10% economic growth rate during the 2003 to 2008 period, most of it in the private sector--and has quickly climbed back to a 5%-plus growth rate after the Bushwhack-instigated worldwide depression. And, on top of all this, Venezuelans rate their own country fifth in the world in the Gallup Wellness poll (a measure of personal happiness and future prospects).
In Chile, while the uber-rich prosper, Chile's billionaire rightwing president, Pinera, has slashed education funding and inspired massive student protests. Indeed, the movement to evict Pinera from office has been spurred by the student protests.
Venezuela's story is repeated in Ecuador, where another leftist government committed to social spending has brought stability to the country. Prior to the Correa government, Ecuador was changing governments almost monthly, due to social unrest and protests. Leftist Correa has stabilized the country--much as Chavez has done in Venezuela-- by, at long last, representing the interests of the vast poor majority!
A similar story in Argentina, where the leftist government brought Argentina back to prosperity after it had been decimated by the forces that Rotters serves--transglobal banksters and corporate looters. A similar story in Bolivia--where the U.S. and the white separatists tried to split the country in two, with riots and murder. Talk about stability! The Morales government literally held the country together and had, prior to that Bush Junta dirty deed, ended several years of massive protests by the poor against transglobal corporate looters, by, as with these other leftist governments, representing the poor majority!
Chile is NOT stable. It is ripped through with economic inequality, and, believe me, economic, political and social inequality all work together to create explosive countries--countries like Venezuela before Chavez where hundreds of poor people were gunned down by police for protesting against egregious government neglect of, and squeezes on, the poor; countries like Bolivia, where, as in apartheid South Africa, a white racist minority ruled in a country whose great majority are Indigenous. "Stability" is not the deadness of elite rule and the gross profiteering of the uber rich. Stability is fairness--on jobs, income, education, opportunity. Stability is "we're in this together," rich and poor, educated and uneducated, trying to build a better society for all.
You won't find any of this in a Rotters article. They serve the deadness of elite rule and the gross profiteering of the uber rich. They think THAT is "stability."
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