Who was the evil one: Allende or Pinochet? Why?
I don't think quora is a good place to get a good answer on this one (the answer you are reading might get several downvotes). This is the most biased subject worldwide about Chile: Pinochet defeated the communists, anybody that defeats them has to expect revenge. Propaganda (including lies) in Chile and in the world against Pinochet is EXTREMELY high. It's constant propaganda for 30+ years and people end up believing it. I've seen how normal people (including women) get spit in the face and kicked in the floor only because they think Pinochet did good things for the country. Have you ever seen a women been kicked in the floor because they said, for instancel, Stalin was good? Unlikely.That is why people that is in favor of Pinochet are not inclined to ... talk about it.I believe he did good for the country. Allende wanted Chile to be like Cuba and started killing military chileans (not good, right?), thereafter Pinochet responded with an upfront attack and did everything he could to repel communism from this country, including some extreme measures (Good or evil? You tell me. I actually think is both, good and evil in some aspects, but overall it was much much much much better for Chile).I confess I'm emotional about it because we are very persecuted, also I was born after the 73. If you want a less biased answer, see the real chilean poll, the last presidential elections: 36% of the people voted for UDI pro Pinochet candidate Evelyn Mathey. The rest voted for the most corrupt government I've known since Allende.
Are Chilean people grateful to CIA for helping them to overthrow socialist regime of Salvador Allende?
The CIA backed coup in Iran in 1953 has had deeper, more far-reaching consequences. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Irania... It is the law of unintended consequences. Who knows, if we hadn't intervened, maybe by now we'd have a functional democracy in the middle east that was friendly to the US. Knowing you, your are probably making the implicit argument that we should avoid electing a leader with socialistic tendencies. Well, I guess that would have helped in 1968. Nixon supported Universal Health Care and a lot of socialistic ideas. lol. And he is the one who presumably gave the go ahead for offing Allende. Both our candidates have been pandering to the masses on economic issues. We will have to see what happens when whoever wins gets serious.
Why do some people say Pinochet was a Libertarian?
They say this in an effort to slander libertarian ideas.Pinochet was a brutal dictator who committed acts of murder and repression that make libertarians cringe. He also brought in a group of economists who were informally called the “Chicago Boys” and sought the economic advice of libertarian hero Milton Friedman. On the basis of the economic policies advocated by the Chicago Boys and Friedman, Chile’s economy did amazingly well, and over time Chile progressed from a regressive dictatorship to a robust and progressive democracy.Pinochet adopted some libertarian economic ideas, and those ideas were wildly successful. The idea that he was a libertarian, however, is far from true. I do not see the economic policies of Pinochet as flowing from a consistent ideology favoring individual liberty, but rather as a matter of chance. The man picked good economic advisers. He himself remains a monster, and no true libertarian would claim him as one of our own.
Does Chile really not have corruption?
For the last 7 years, I have had this exact conversation with many of my friends in Chile, some of them are very politically active, work for the government and some for the UN. All are from the span of the political spectrum, from far left to far right (a concept that is not actually used when talking politics in Chile, meaning politics in Chile is more like a multicolored rainbow than just a two color rainbow). Here is what we determined.Let me start the answer with an understanding that there is no country without corruption. The global political system has a measure of corruption built in. That measure is what is tolerated by the populace of said country.I think a better starting point to understand corruption here in Chile is by comparing it to other countries. Transparency International releases a Global Corruption Index and has for decades. It gives an understanding of what measures are used to define corruption and ranks each country accordingly. I will compare Chile to the US for this example, but you could compare it to any country you are familiar with and obtain an idea of the corrpution levels in Chile.When I first moved to Chile in 2010 Chile scored a 7.2 and the US a 7.1 (out of 10). 2011 the same score for both. In 2012 the index changes to be out of 100 and Chile scored 72 while the US score 73.2013 Chile 71 US 732014 Chile 73 US 742015 Chile 70 US 762016 Chile 66 US 74You can go back further and see Chile was fairly on par with the least corrupt countries in the world. So what does that data tell me? Chile is not any more or less corrupt than other countries as being overtly corrupt. It is interesting to note that the recent drop occured under a president who was extremely popular at the start of her current term and during her last term in office. It is also an election year in Chile and the index for 2017 and 2018 will show if the trend continues downward or if it was a momentary drop.
Why do liberals think capitalism is a bad thing?
I have a small screen printing company. It's the way I and three employees make a living for our families. What's wrong with that? Why do they want to bring me down with MORE taxes, health insurance, MORE government control, and MORE red tape? They don't really want me (us) to succeed, do they? Help me figure this out. Not a republican and definitely not a democrat.