Did Pinochet kill or cure Chile?

[redqueen]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6167941.stm

(snip)

Like the faces of Pinochet supporters on Chilean television weeping for the death of their former military ruler, it's a reminder that many people in Chile see the ex-general as the man who saved their country from a great sickness.

Of course, relatives of the more than 3,000 people who were killed or "disappeared" during his 17-year rule will angrily attest that from their point of view, the cure was far worse than the disease.

Although Gen Pinochet leaves Chilean society politically polarised, his economic legacy is arguably a more fortunate one.

Unlike many other military regimes in Latin America, the general's rule was marked by wide-ranging economic liberalisation, including a wave of privatisations.
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comments?

[Warpy]

1. His privatization of their social security system has been acting

like a classic Ponzi scheme. The workers who retired during his reign did quite well. The workers retiring now need welfare supplements to survive if they can't still work low level, part time jobs.

The right wing loves to trumpet what a success Chile's privatization scheme was, how Pinochet saved social security there. Notice, however, the cutoff date for the success is always back in the 90s.

Pinochet was a rousing success if you were middle class or better. He was a dismal failure for the majority of the population and the young.

We don't know what Allende would have done for the country. The country didn't get a chance to find out.

[SharonAnn]

6. He saw to it that great wealth was transferred to the already wealthy.

It was taken from the poor, the middle-class, and the national infrastructure.

The Chilean wealthy are on a scale of wealth that is almost unimaginable.

I have a relative by marriage, step-daughter of a Chilean brother-in-law who is married to a welathy man. Last time I was in Chile we didn't see her because she and her husband had flown to Panama with their yacht crew to pick up their new custom-built yacht and embark on a training cruise with their new crew down the coast of South America. Then they would fly the training crew back home. Fortunately the yacht was apparently big enough to house all those people for a multi-week trip.

Boy, if I had anickel for every relative who's given that excuse to avoid seeing me, I'd have . . . a nickel.

Their life-style is (for me) almost beyond imagining.

[Vexatious Ape]

2. I wouldn't give him much credit.

Here's a good link on the Pinochet issue: http://marccooper.com/

[RethugAssKicker]

3. Pinochet was a murderous RW bastard.....

He did nothing for the economy... see this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x251287

[RethugAssKicker]

4. The vast majority of the Chilean people did not mourn

for Pinochet. .. They took to the streets and celebrated his death..

Do not get any info on Chile from the American press... It is lying BS.

[redqueen]

5. Yeah, but this is from the beeb.

Disappointing, but not surprising at all.

*sigh*

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. They have right-wingers in England, too

Margaret Thatcher is another believer in privatizing everything.

Actually, the reason Chile has done well economically is that it had a good infrastructure and an educated population BEFORE Pinochet came to power.

[redqueen]

9. Oh yes, this I know.

I cringe when people opine that media outside the US is that much different. Of course it is different... but not *that* much.

And yes, I'm very familiar with Thatcher's many detestable qualities. :hi:

[Judi Lynn]

8. Here's a very worthwhile article on the subject by Greg Palast

Tinker Bell, Pinochet and The Fairy Tale Miracle of Chile

Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, Tinker Bell and General Augusto Pinochet had much in common.

All three performed magical good deeds. In the case of Pinochet, he was universally credited with the Miracle of Chile, the wildly successful experiment in free markets, privatization, de-regulation and union-free economic expansion whose laissez-faire seeds spread from Valparaiso to Virginia.

But Cinderella’s pumpkin did not really turn into a coach. The Miracle of Chile, too, was just another fairy tale. The claim that General Pinochet begat an economic powerhouse was one of those utterances whose truth rested entirely on its repetition.

Chile could boast some economic success. But that was the work of Salvador Allende - who saved his nation, miraculously, a decade after his death.
(snip/...)

http://www.gregpalast.com/tinker-bell-pinochet-and-the-fairy-tale-miracle-of-chile-2#more-1551