Chile: Contest Of Our Time

CHILE

Contest of Our Time

Free marketeers have long considered Chile a darling among South American countries due to its reputation as conservative, pro-business and stable.

But recently one of the country’s best-known exports has been a feminist protest song called “The Rapist Is You,” the Guardian reported. The song is a critique of patriarchy. It also is a sign of how many Chileans don’t like where their country is going.

At least 27 people have died in protests that erupted in Chile in October, Al Jazeera wrote. The civil unrest was triggered by a hike in metro fare costs. But the demonstrations now target President Sebastian Pinera, a billionaire whom many Chileans view as a symbol of the economic inequality that has marked the country in recent years.

Students have disrupted the Chilean version of SAT tests, saying the college-entrance exams are unfair because wealthier students perform better, Time wrote. A victim of sexual abuse who courageously went public against the Catholic Church in Chile is launching a new political party, called Dignity, to fight against inequality and rising costs, Reuters reported.

Despite Chile’s pro-business image, corruption is widespread. Solid evidence suggested that lawmakers received bribes to enact a fishery law that gave monopoly rights to politically connected elites, for example. Yet the law passed, enriching the rich. Such corruption costs Chileans around $5 billion a year in uncollected taxes and other lost revenues, according to Pro-Market, a blog produced by the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Pinera has taken action. He halted the metro fare hikes, raised pensions, hired and fired cabinet members, launched health care reforms and agreed to schedule an April referendum on whether or not to rewrite the country’s constitution, a document adopted in 1980 when a military junta ran the country.

The protests continue, however. People appear to want more than tweaked government policies.

“One of the main challenges, inequality, won’t be solved with simply approving a new constitution,” said Pablo Villoch, who teaches business at Chilean universities, in an interview with the Washington Post. “But I think this is a historic opportunity to get closer to a system that is more socially cohesive.”

Chile’s travails are common throughout the world, argued writer Ariel Dorfman in a New York Times op-ed. Impatient, frustrated and tech savvy folks, often young folks, are challenging a political, social and economic system that appears slanted in favor of the rich who, absent protests, have few incentives to give up their power.

In Chile and elsewhere, this contest doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. But it might turn out to be one.