Chile Forum

pajaritoblanco wrote:

jessicak1234 wrote:Nobody cares if you are Catholic or not, but the Catholic church pulls a ton of weight in politics here.

A British friend of mine met a Chilena in the UK and they started pololeando. Everything seemed to be perfect until during a visit to her family in Chile he admitted to not believing in God. His future in-laws were shocked, and basically the couple's subsequent break-up was due to the disapproval by her family. I gathered from his account that had he said he was Anglican, Jew or Muslim he would have been accepted, but being openly non-religious - which is quite normal in the UK - was too much for them. I wonder if this is a typical story or my friend just happened to date a girl from an extremely pious family?

valpo dreams wrote:liberties vs legalities vs lifestyles


2 - read the minefields posts, but didn't quite get the locations of said minefields? (only in the south?)

FrankPintor wrote:Px, man, I know you want to make a point but the mumpsimus exhibited by this random individual is hardly worth the effort. I suspect that even point 1. ranks orders of magnitude lower than the issues you (or I) wish to address.

ValPo Dreamz, on the assumption that you haven't understood "mumpsimus" or indeed understood the context or definition: duh,like, not absolutely everything is on sale even everywhere in Chile. You tried to kick the tyres and missed. Shucks. When you get to your feet, think... and try again.

If complete economic freedom and absence of government is a cure-all, partial economic freedom and limited government should be a cure-some. At the turn of the 20th century, business could do what it wanted-- and it did. The result was robber barons, monopolistic gouging, management thugs attacking union organizers, filth in our food, a punishing business cycle, slavery and racial oppression, starvation among the elderly, gunboat diplomacy in support of business interests...

Or take Russia in the decade after the fall of Communism, as advised by free-market absolutists like Jeffrey Sachs. Russian GDP declined 50% in five years. The elite grabbed the assets they could and shuffled them out of Russia so fast that IMF loans couldn't compensate. In 1994 alone, 600 businessmen, journalists, and politicians were murdered by gangsters. Russia lacked a working road system, a banking system, anti-monopoly regulation, effective law enforcement, or any sort of safety net for the elderly and the jobless. Inflation reached 2250% in 1992. Central government authority effectively disappeared in many regions.

valpo dreams wrote:liberties vs legalities vs lifestyles

1 - while in valpo in 2010 we went to a stripper bar with the rest of the navy crew we were with. interestingly enough the ... <ahem> ... exotic dancers had no problems entertaining the male sailors in the club, but would not go anywhere near the lesbian female sailors in the club - call me naive, but a peso is a peso, but why was this?

Afterburner wrote:Maybe eventually through constant direct exposure, or by means of the ongoing process of cultural imperialism, the last residue of any understanding of the biological and psychological asymmetrical complementarity that exists between men and women and defines our human state, and which has been commonly and instinctively understood as a generic norm by almost all cultures and throughout all history, will be wiped clean from those girls' minds.

seawolf180 wrote:One unfortunate lack of personal freedom some discover here is in regard to inheritance. You have no choice, half of your (Chilean) property goes to your spouse, the rest is split between your children.
At least there is now a divorce law. Some years ago, you might have "separado" with your spuse, and then if you died 20 odd years later said spouse would still get half.
The point is you still don't have controll over your financial legacy...and that really sucks.

patagoniax wrote:Or maybe they'll just stay drunk and continue to work as chilean bar girls have for eternity, until they become elected to the national congress.