John Hinderaker at PowerLine informs us of an important election in Chile. His post includes a great rolling chart from tweet from Simon Kuestenmacher that has 14 Latin American countries listed by income per capita. It starts in 1971 with Venezuela first while Chile is in the middle. It ends in 2019 with Chile first and socialist Venezuela with all those oil reserves is number twelve. It is, as John tells us, a story of capitalism versus socialism. According to the Heritage Index of Economic Freedom for the Americas, Chile is second in economic freedom behind only Canada while socialist Venezuela is thirty-second and last. It is a beautiful story for us capitalistic orphans because Chile is the laboratory for free market capitalism while Venezuela is an experiment in socialism. Score one-nil for the capitalists.
Sidebar: Checking out the Heritage index and the GDP chart is enjoyable for us capitalists except for Jamaica. Jamaica is fifth in the Americas for economic freedom but thirteenth in the per capita income chart. There is an opportunity for research. End Sidebar
But there are no won causes. The Heritage posting on Chile tell us that the center-right President faces stiff resistance from Congress and includes this:
In an October 2020 referendum, nearly 80 percent of voters approved a proposal to rewrite or abandon Chile’s current constitution.
Freedom is a choice. Reagan was wrong that it never comes back as Chile is a case in point. The problem, however, is that it can be lost and is difficult to get back. We hope that the success of capitalism in Chile will make it difficult for the left to implement foolish ideas. Unfortunately, it has rarely stopped them before. The success of capitalism never seems to burnish its reputation while the failures of socialism never seem to tarnish its reputation.
menwithgloves 