On Wed, 6 Oct 1999 11:36:38 -0600 manders at midway.uchicago.edu (Maureen Therese Anderson) writes:
>As for Chile, as Ed Herman and others have noted (see _Triumph of the
>Market_): the poverty rate, which rose drastically under the
>dictatorship
>still hasn't dropped to the 1972 level. GNP growth from 61-71 was 4.6%
>a
>year, verus 2.6% a year 74-89 (and negative 74-89 on a per capita
>basis)
>(p. 52). Much of the vaunted growth of Chile in recent years has been
>inflated by starting the calculations in 1982, at the trough of a huge
>collapse.
Chile is quite a good example to talk about because of the role that University of Chicago-trained economists played in formulating the economic policies of the Pinochet regime. That whole experience gives the lie to Milton Friedman's claim in his book *Capitalism and Freedom* that what he calls economic liberty (i.e. free market economics) is a necessary presupposition for political democracy and political liberty. On the contrary, it seems unlikely that the kinds of economic policies that were implemented under Pinochet would ever have been adopted in their expreme ruthlessness except under a dictatorial regime like Pinochet's which after all had gained power by the violent overthrow of the elected president, Salvadore Allendee, a self-described Marxist. Of course it is always possible that your libertarian opponent might then argue that "Chicago boys" under Pinochet were not true libertarians. If this happens, then it is time to start talking about the "no true Scotsman" fallacy.
>
>The rapid privatizations under the dictatorship were followed
>by massive failures in the early 1980s, leading to renationalizations,
>then a further resale of the renationalized institutions once again at
>bargain basement prices. The bailout costs in Chile 82-88 amounted to
>one-third of GDP. All of this was of course a gross violation of the
>principles of free markets, but consistent with a system of elite
>privilege.
>
>And let's of course not forget that Pinochet did a massive
>job of "class cleansing," destroying the labor and peasant movements,
>killing large numbers of activists and grass roots leaders, and
>keeping
>them down by a plain system of terror. Capital was meanwhile able to
>concentrate at will and take over public property, the media was
>further
>commercialized and concentrated, and foreign investment became
>more important. In short, a highly unlevel playing field was
>established
>to assure capital domination and rapid short term accumulation. As
>this
>terror and restructuring favorable to capital was loved by global
>capital,
>the small problematics (huge inequality, poverty levels greater than
>in
>the "poorer" Allende era, an absence of political options, impunity
>and
>continued power to mass murderers) are all glossed over in the
>mainstream
>media, who focus as hear on growth without regard to equity or
>justice.
>
>...Really, debating free-market libertarians is like shooting fish in
>a barrel.
>
>Maureen
>
>
>
>
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