Chile Forum

Time will tell.....I think he's a decent man, very smart and a hard worker. He'll demand excellence and performance from his cabinet, and he'll ride the "let's fix chile" wave for six months or more. Maybe he'll guide the country through the earthquake recovery and, oh yeah, the global economic crisis. Eventually, though, he'll have the same problems every president has, and he'll have the same limitations that every president has.

For the record, I think it's healthy for a society to shift back and forth from center left and center right. The US has been doing that for a long time. Chile is taking an step in that direction, and that's good. Some smart economic policy should help everyone.

I believe he does have a strong economic team, thus far I have only heard great things about them.
Like most presidents, the first year is the most important as power will run out to change more but if he can set a strong base running, which it seems he is, with a team that is motivated to clean out the closests then I think it can only go up. They do ideally have a perfect opportunity to empower small business and make the poor people wealthier at the same time.
I think the focus in Chile is to embolden the lower economic class, which he must do and move those people to the middle income bracket so they can build nicer places and get better things which should reduce some petty crime at least.

I think it's hard to say what he will really do. He says what he would like to do- like merge banking and the stock exchange and further privatize Codelco. I personally don't like either of these ideas-I've seen what the merging in the US and "bigger is better' attitude got us. And the copper revenue gave Chile a nice cushion. The Concertacion was fiscally responsible yet Pinera says he will bring fiscal responsibility-we will have to see just what fiscal responsibility is to him and his team. He announced that he would be giving a March bonus of $76 to 4 million. I have a bad feeling more money("tax incentives") will go to large corporations that add to GDP and people at the bottom or middle class won't be empowered. A balance is needed. The Congress is split, nearly 50/50. Pinochet's constitution(the one in effect) makes it extremely difficult to pass important legislation without a much larger majority. So I think he will be constrained from some of that/.

Education is very important. Pinera favors building private schools with scholarships but I fear this would leave a large part of the country uneducated and stuck in the lower class. It would make sense (to me) to educate as many as possible so more people have elevated incomes and are buying and consuming more. Yes, and paying more taxes.

Business is always about connections but I think it is much worse here. I am afraid things get done-or don't get done, not because of need or what's right or even what makes financial business sense or how intelligent someone is but is often because of those connections-who you know, who your family is...And I think Pinera is pretty connected.

I was explaining the concept of trading on insider information(months ago) to a Chilean friend and mentioned Pinera was accused of that. My friend said "But we don't care! If someone is smart enough to "win" money like that, we think they are smart! "

I do hope Pinera will be good for Chile. I always wish Chile the best. Chileans have decided. And will decide and shape their own future.

I agree with most of what you said, it was well written.
The only thing for me is that Pinera is a much needed change from the stagnant nature that has existed for some many years and the ridiculous bureaucracy that needs overturning asap in regards to banks, govt offices, etc. I hope these changes will come in the form of modernization of the system.

As well, even if Pinera only affects a certain portion of the country it must be reviewed as positive as no president or govt can ever change all of the classes or all of the people but if perhaps some poor become middle and more middle become wealthy, it is at least a step in the right direction. Even in the US this has never changed as those at the bottom strive no further to achieve any more than live off of the welfare state and we still have education and other issues here. US corruption is as bad or worse in the private sector and in govt.

For me its all about Chiles chance to jump a level and put a foot forward in the grand scheme of South American politics to separate themselves more so than how many become wealthier or what tax cuts are given.

this brings up a point that i am unclear on in the world of chilean politics....in the US, when control of the white house switches parties, the upper tier of government employees get replaced, but the great majority of "civil servants" continue on in their jobs. what happens here?

my chilean girlfriend thinks that the party affiliations are stronger within the national government and that there will be more turnover....but since chile hasn't had a power shift like this since pinochet left, she isn't really sure. but she is sure that party affiliation will a long way towards deciding who stays and who goes...in other words...more of the same kind of networking we saw with concertation, but this time with a right twist. it's not what you know...it's who you know....on the right.

there's a plus and minus to everything.....less turnover means more stability (or stagnation)...more turnover means a fresher start (and more chaos).

well, from what i have heard stagnation is not whats wanted and most of us here know that the infrastructure part must be upgraded in terms of doing biz in chile.
the general consensus is that most will go due to affiliation but not all.
There is a new Ambassador for D.C. but the Ministerio of Agricultura and Economic office, who were center left, will most likely stay.

And if there is one thing I have learned in life, its all about who you know no matter where you are on this planet, thats just the nature of society and relationships, we all do it even if we think we dont.

The US has failed miserably at addressing the huge distribution of wealth disparity (which is getting increasingly wider) among its population. Therefore, I hope Pinera throws away his Harvard economics playbook and focuses on how to achieve a more just society in Chile.

More "just" society means bringing "the rich" down. If everyone had a brand new Honda and one guy had a Mercedes, the class warriors scream "injustice" left and right. The reason half the planet is trying to get into the US is that they want the Honda and a shot at the Mercedes. Many of the places that they are leaving, everyone has the same just share - little or nothing. But hey, those societies are "equal" and that's how the US ought to be. The US success is based on people worrying about how to move up instead of how to rip others down. To the extent that the US is in trouble, it tends to come from "I have no goat, so let's kill yours" type of thinking. How's the 50% of the healthcare system that is already run by the government doing? Lousy, gee, who knew. Solution: Let's screw up the private 50% that is functional, so we'll all be equal.

I'm no Pinera expert, but it sounds like he rejects such inferior thinking. Heck, even Concertacion seemed to have limited how far it took such nonsense. I hope Pinera focuses on making things better for everyone as opposed to some twisted, misery-inducing concept of "justice".

John Hyre, These Guys Never Get It

First, It is kind of reassuring to see the forum slipping back in to a bit of normal political ho hum chewing the fat.

Basic problem of economics being too many wants, insufficient goods. The thing that Chile has going for it is there are sufficient resources relative to such a small population. Chile has the potential to really make everyone rich, or at least not want for much. I kind of envision Chile one day being like a Switzerland the Finland of South America.

Two things: increase and encourage entrepreneurship and dump massive resources in to the education system and R&D. The fastest way to do all of that, is give any Chilean kid that wants to a free ride to go study outside the country at any University they want to.

Admin, are you saying post secondary school education in Chile is lacking? You are 100% correct. Our friends children in college know this and realize they are unemployable upon graduation. All the engineers in my wife's family have to stand aside when a production system goes down and they bring in an American contractor to get the system running.
I believe if you send a student outside Chile for education, most will not return. It's not 1930's Germany or 1960's Soviet Union; you can't hold the families hostage until they return.
Education has to be improved in Chile.
Also, wealth is earned or inherited, not distributed in the U.S.A. Even distribution does not work.
Example: Ben and Jerry's, a socially responsible company felt the highest paid employee should not earn more than five times the lowest paid employee. This was in the 1980's. When they needed to hire a financial executive, they realized they could only pay about $60,000, five times the salary of a maintenance person. Nobody wanted the job. To hire a qualified person, their only choices were to increase the salaries of all the employees to raise the maximum salary available and retain the gaps between the different types of employees, or abandon the scheme.
Common sense and capitalism set in and the plan was quietly abandoned.

I actually think Chileans that leave and don't return in many ways benefits Chile in opening relationships with the World. I honestly see the other trend everyday as we have lots of second and third generation Chileans returning now or requesting their citizenship, that hire us to assist with the paperwork.

Nice post Zenth. Nothing like a dose of reality to draw attention to the true effect of intention.

John Hyre, God Save Us from Do-Gooders