MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Candidate Bachelet announces constitutional reform, tax on the rich and more power to unions
Chilean former president and opposition coalition New Majority candidate Michelle Bachelet presented her government's program which is based on a review of the constitution, education and tax reforms, legalizing same sex marriage, government managed pension funds and strengthening unions' bargaining power, among other issues. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesWhy doesn't she say what she really wants, which is to copy Argentina's shining example on the path to prosperity?
Oct 28th, 2013 - 07:01 am - Link - Report abuse 0No one is stupid enough to copy Argentina. I don't think Chile has to worry.
Oct 28th, 2013 - 07:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0Income redistribution, educational reform, constitutional reform, marriage equality are all laudable aims.
Even unions have their function in economic development. As for increasing heir power, Chile need not worry too much. If there is one guarantee that economic development beings, it is that unions lose their political clout as pragmatic politicians seek to gain and retain power and don't aim for revolution.
Power oscillating between centre-left and centre-right ensures a steady course.
@1 Mr Ed
Oct 28th, 2013 - 07:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0Michelle Bachelet is not Chile's version of CFK.
@3 Indeed, CFK did not finish her education in East Germany. Bachelet strikes me as honest, but an honest socialist is still a socialist.
Oct 28th, 2013 - 09:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0@2 By education reform the socialists mean state control, and the prohibition of private education, which can only mean decay and is tyrannical.
Income redistribution is simply absurd, wages reflect economic reality. To help the poor, don't tax them, let people save, avoid inflation of the money supply and increased compettion for labour boosts wage rates as does capital accumulation. A politician can no more fix poverty than a bank robber.
Constitutional reform means making the State strong, which will only impoverish the working people of Chile and mean less freedom.
@4 On constitutional reform, she herself apparently refers to “making the state strong”. Isn't the state strong enough already? In a democratic country, the source of power is “the people”. Who is going to be stronger, the state or the people?
Oct 28th, 2013 - 10:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0Educational reform is fine. Except, what about choice? And if it's “inclusive”, who decides?
Presumably she has reports indicating the scale of tax evasion. So will this reform involve catching the evaders? Or making everyone else pay more?
And this is the best she can come up with? How about proper rights for indigenous people? What about a declaration supporting the Falkland Islands? What about withdrawing permission for LAN to fly into argieland?
So many Chicken Littles!
Oct 28th, 2013 - 11:34 am - Link - Report abuse 0Sounds like a commie to me.
Oct 28th, 2013 - 11:34 am - Link - Report abuse 0@1 Currency controls and protectionism? Not a chance. Bachelet is completely committed to Chile's incumbent economic model. Everyone in Chile, on both sides, knows that we have the macro economic policy right and no one is going to change that. Everyone also knows that the wealth is too unevenly distributed and that a very poor public education system leaves a lot of people locked out.
Oct 28th, 2013 - 12:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The debate is all about how to divide up the cake and not about how to make it.
@2 and @3 Yes, absolutely.
@4 Mr Ed,
You have to remember that Bachelet is heading up a diverse coalition that includes, at one end, commies who want a class revolution and at the other end Christian Democrats who would send a doctor to jail for performing an abortion on a victim of incestual rape.
The reason she has left it until 3 week before the election to reveal her ambiguous manifesto is to give as little time as possible for the press and opposition to destroy it. She knows she will achieve very little of what she has set out. It is just electioneering.
@5 Conq
The FI and Lan's problems in Argentina are of minimal interest to the electorate.
Its funny that Condorito and me (Chicago Boys Model supporters) would be seen as “commies” by some of you. We are very much probably more economically liberal than most of you would ever dare to be in your social democracies. But lets not forget a fact... eventhough our free economy model in Chile has been running successful for more than 30 years, something is still not running 100%, otherwise there wouldnt be such a social gap. That is a fact, full stop. State is definitely not too strong in Chile (Much less intervention than your US and UK governments, so it sounds even more funny you guys call us commies). Adjustments in regards to clever incentivation is necessary. I am not calling to give free goodies for the people, but to easen the the situation for people WILLING to contribute to society. That does not mean I want free University education for all, but definitely a correction of the current extreme situation.
Oct 28th, 2013 - 01:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@4 Mr Ed
Oct 28th, 2013 - 02:06 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I don't think completing her education in the D.D.R. turned her in to the Manchurian Candidate. Socialism is a broad and subjective term that means a lot of things to a lot of people. Chile has already been through a socialist meltdown and a military dictatorship in the past 40 years. The way they have come to terms with this history ought to be an example to all. The ensuing pain has given them wisdom. They're not going back there.
Chile really does need education reform and I don't believe that most aspire to anything more than what most western country's already provide: a decent education paid for by the state, or a better one for those willing to pay the extra.
@10 re education, it seems that all she is interested in is a State monopoly.
Oct 28th, 2013 - 04:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Re the DDR, it was almost impossible to get out of the DDR without permission, and entrance to foreigners was tightly controlled until the Wall fell. Yet she was allowed in to live and study there, she must have been thought 'reliable'. I have yet to find any criticism from her of the DDR, perhaps it is out there somewhere. Certainly she has been pragmatic and sensible so far, but she appears to be looking to make her (Ost?)mark next time.
If there is a decent education paid for by the State in the UK, it seems to have bypassed a lot of people.
#10 Casper, quite a good sum up. Couldn't have said it better.
Oct 28th, 2013 - 05:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0#11 Mr Ed, don't you think that it a bit of a cheap argument reagarding Bachelet and the DDR? Her beeing raised in that nation, doesn't make her automatically a follower of the marxist and and state driven economy, neither does it for the resting 16 million east germans now enjoying social market in a sane german economy. I don't recall Angela Merkel follow any kind of ideology from the DDR neither, and she was also raised there and even something in front of Bachelet: Angela Merkel was politically active in the DDR! Now if you check her current (austerity) politics , it makes your conservative leader, David Cameron, look like Lenin ;)
I have to say, I am not really fond for what Bachelet stands for politically, but I am far away from being afraid that she could turn Chile into such leftist horror-scenario like you guys paint it.
@ 12 Merkel had no option about the DDR as she was born and raised there, Bachelet moved there as an adult, a vital distinction in my view making your argument rather difficult to follow.
Oct 28th, 2013 - 06:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Had an Argentinian politician of the 1950s elected to move to Germany or Italy in 1935 to complete an education, might one not ask if that politician had any particular sympathy with Nazism or Fascism as the case may be?
And I am not saying that she would ruin Chile, I would appreciate some information on whether or not she has ever commented on her time in the DDR or condemned Communism. She had little choice about remaining in Chile at the time, but might have gone to say, the UK or Sweden rather than the Berlin Wall. The East Germans liked her, why?
@8 “The FI and Lan's problems in Argentina are of minimal interest to the electorate.” Really? Then perhaps the electorate should get its head out of its arse. As a matter of interest, is there any company in Chile that is more successful? Think very hard about how a large successful company affects an economy and a country. Then, just a few hundred miles away, Chile can see a proper democratic country. With a GDP (PPP) three times the value of Chile's. Why is it that, apparently, Uruguay can see the worth of the Falklands but Chile can't. But Uruguay isn't that worth having as a friend. Too far under the argie jackboot. Wouldn't Chile like to be shown how to increase its wealth? Think about the Falkland Islands. How come they are so rich? Even before oil. Doesn't the Chilean navy “relate” to the Royal Navy? Doesn't Chile relate to Britain, and the Falkland Islands? Just how much does Chile need to clench its sphincter?
Oct 28th, 2013 - 07:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@13 Mr Ed
Oct 28th, 2013 - 07:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I wouldn't read too much in to the 3 years studying in the DDR, remember she also studied military strategy in the US at the Inter-American Defense College.
I don't know why she chose the DDR in 1975, perhaps they offered to pay for her studies and support her financially; or perhaps she was curious to live in a communist country. As an intelligent person, her time in the DDR is likely to have moved her right on the political spectrum.
Certainly her track record shows that she supports a liberal economic approach. Chile is ranked as the 7th freest economy in the world ahead of both the US and UK, a process which our “lefties” including Bachelet drove. (http://www.heritage.org/index/).
The East Germans (Russians) might have had great plans for Bachelet in 1975, but I am sure that she is as happy as Merkel that the DDR no longer exists.
She will put more Mami in to the state but she is no commie.
...
Oct 28th, 2013 - 08:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0...... She is no Commie; she's a Mommie. :-)))
Oct 28th, 2013 - 08:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@14 Conq
Oct 28th, 2013 - 08:29 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes really.
The FI have an economy about the size of a small Chilean village. You can't expect it to be important to the electorate. That is not to say it is not important to the foreign ministry. How interested would the British electorate be about a territorial dispute between Finland and Sweden? Not very, right.
There are many companies in Chile more important than Lan. To start with there is the entire mining industry. Lan is highly visible, but their problems in Argentina are really exactly that, problems in Argentina. If they want to destroy their domestic air transport industry that is their problem. If Lan withdrew from Argentina there would be a small change in value of Lan shares (probably already factored in) but no consequence for the Chilean economy.
The Chilean and UK military have a close and good relationship, but again these are not election issues. No clenching of sphincter is necessary, our military can fight Argentina with one hand whilst the other fights Peru and Bolivia.
“Wouldn't Chile like to be shown how to increase its wealth? ”
An odd question. I hope you are not suggesting that the UK's economic model is one that we should follow. Even if it were, we would be able to follow it with or without the FI being an election issue.
@Condorito, the Chile of today is indeed well placed, and the UK is more like Argentina economically and politically than is good for it.
Oct 28th, 2013 - 09:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I do hope that Bachelet has learnt her lesson from her time in the DDR, I don't like to think it was the goose-stepping in East Berlin (banned in the West) that gave her happy memories.
@Mr Ed
Oct 28th, 2013 - 10:17 pm - Link - Report abuse 0We like a bit of goose-stepping here too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Cw_LodXXM
lol.
@Think:
”...... She is no Commie; she's a Mommie. :-)))”
Lol. Indeed.
Think says: ”...... She is no Commie; she's a Mommie. :-)))”
Oct 28th, 2013 - 10:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I say: you would hope that at Think's age he was able to work through his Oedipus Complex instead of transferring it to a powerful woman.
Though it explains a lot and CFK is on her way out!
#13 Mr Ed: it seems Michelle Bachelet was not completely independent as an individual at the point she left the nation. After she had been tortured and with a very fragile situation, she left Chile together with her mother towards
Oct 29th, 2013 - 11:24 am - Link - Report abuse 0Australia and afterwards also together to the DDR. So I am quite sure it was not her decision but rather the one of her mother/dad. I am not aware of any bigger comments regarding her position to the DDR, so that might be a point.
But I also guess this is of no relevance for her politics and ideology, because otherwise she would defend it or point out “good things” of that system something I never heard of her.
#14 Conquereror: There is an historic tie between Chile and the UK, more than the Falklands (general Chileans do see it rather as a dependency of the UK). But this ties are very focused on geostrategic and previously in centuries
on economic terms. The Falklands itself are not a theme in national elections, as chileans do not react to much on geostrategical themes, but rather internal social themes. Imagine... even the much more relevant issue of the Chile-Peru sea delimitation currently running in the ICJ isn't a theme, why should the Falklands be then. Chileans have become very un-territorial people in recent times, and I wish our neighbours would follow our path. It would make life much easier and free energies for more relevant issues.
And it might sound a bit arrogant, but LAN is not going to suffer severe consecuences, if they leave the Argentine market. Argentines would suffer more with it. LAN has become the second biggest private Airline in the world by market capitalization, but it does not have a big relevance in the chilean economics, as it is a very globalized company. By the way Conqueror, no... it isn't the biggest company in Chile. It's not in the top 10, and it's not even the biggest Chilean company in it's sector (transport) , as the CSVA (Shipping company, biggest in LA) is still bigger in Revenues and Assets.
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