MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Chileans massive protest to end the private pension system; Bachelet's approval plummets to 15%
Tens of thousands of Chileans took to the streets throughout the country on Sunday, seeking to increase pressure on the government to throw out Chile’s private pension system in favor of one that would provide better retirement benefits. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesAnother female in power who cannot manage a downturn, great when things are going well, but crap when it's crap.
Aug 24th, 2016 - 01:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Same with the men.
Good for Chileans for taking matters in their hands.
Aug 24th, 2016 - 02:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0A “private pension system that has regularly paid out pensions under the minimum wage...”
No surprisingly, ChrisR displicently glosses over the problem, suggesting it's a “female in power” matter...but prudently adding “men too” in the last line.
Besides “crap” comments, this actually is a huge scam against retired Chileans, concocted to benefit private interests and no surprisingly put in place by bloody former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
In Argentina, the privatization of pensions by Carlos Menem represented another huge transfer of public funds to the private sector until the Kirchner government ended it in 2008.
In all those schemes, the neoliberal principle of “privatizing benefits--socializing losses” was deliberately applied.
If Chileans don't rid themselves of this leftist government, they will descend into socialist tyranny and poverty. The things that General Pinochet did to move the country toward self-reliance, freedom and prosperity are being systematically undone.
Aug 24th, 2016 - 04:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@3 Bisley
Aug 24th, 2016 - 10:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I didn't know having a public pension scheme was a sign of socialist tyranny and poverty. Perhaps you should inform all those EU countries, the USA, Canada...
@1 ChrisR
What like Angela Merkel? It's really shocking how terribly Germany coped with the financial crisis, after all.
Chris and Bisley might be onto something: Chanchelet has achieved something that no male president in Chile has ever been able to accomplish: a job approval rating of just 15 percent (mentioned in the article) -- - the lowest ever recorded in the country. Even Pinochet rates higher, and he's been dead for years. So.... a big round of applause for the Chanchelet !
Aug 24th, 2016 - 10:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0----------
I was talking to a Chilean attorney about this retirement issue. She said that the people who are most complaining about not getting enough retirement payout are the people who didn't work for enough years to pay into the system that they now expect to provide them with disproportionate benefits. Actually people have to work a minimum of 20 years to received a minimum pension, and public monies are used to make up the difference between the full entitlement and the minimum pension payout. But Chile has a rather low rate of formal workforce participation. Many people protesting the current policy have not worked the minimum 20 years, and are simply shocked that they are not going to receive a comfortable pension for working fewer than the required years.
Part of the something-for-nothing syndrome. Que pague Moya.
Deregulate the industry so that Chileans can choose their fund of choice or start their own.
Aug 24th, 2016 - 11:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Mandatory employer and supplementary personal contributions have created A$2.1 billion of savings.
As well as creating investment in industry and infrastructure while looking for returns.
@5 Marti Llazo
Aug 25th, 2016 - 06:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So your friend thinks the real problem is people working in the informal sector who presumably don't pay pension contributions? How do other countries in the region deal with this problem?
In the UK you need 30 years of contributions to get the full state pension, but years spent on the dole or disability allowance count towards this. Another something-for-nothing syndrome?
@7 Both Chile and Argentina have very low formal workforce participation and this has been the case for a long time. In Argentina it's called “trabajo en negro. ” Basically, working off the books. You see it here a lot in construction. If you hire someone to remodel your residence, they usually want to be paid in cash and have no record of their having been there. Somewhere around 70 percent of construction work during the Kirchner years was done off the books. The Kirchner government didn't go after them because they are big KK supporters. And these are ReeKee's heroes -- they make good money, pay no taxes (except the VAT, called IVA here) and they get their free medical, free school, pensions paid with public monies (because they declare amounts below the minimum taxable , while making more), a whole raft of social services, all free, and about 90 percent of their utilities costs are subsidised by the people who do pay taxes. And then there are the government workers.... in some places they can retire and get a pension after working only 10 years ! Even better than Greece.
Aug 25th, 2016 - 10:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0# 8 Marti
Aug 26th, 2016 - 05:43 am - Link - Report abuse 0Here's again Marti and his theories that most people live well without desserving it.
Of course, he refers only to the working class, which is being paid to do nothing, etc.
“they get their free medical, free school, pensions paid with public monies...and about 90 percent of their utilities costs are subsidised by the people who do pay taxes. And then there are the government workers.”
Just a couple days ago, president Macri came again swinging against workers who take too many days off, and against labour tribunals that too often rule in favour of the workers...looks like elite defender Marti is his speechwriter!
@ 4 DemonTree
Aug 26th, 2016 - 11:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0Merkel had a gift of a job integrating the two parts of Germany, apart from the fact that a significant part of W. German folk were dead against the waste of money (as they saw it) of bringing a failed commie experiment up to western standards.
Why should she be worried about money when she controls the purse strings and direction of the EU?
Bachelet started her present disaster with the Chileans wearing rose tinted glasses as far as she was concerned. It was clear to everyone with a brain that the nascent drop in copper was only going to get worse and I predicted that that fact alone would soon show if she had the ability to deal with the economy.
Regrettably she has come up woefully found wanting. No surprise to me.
'Tits' May has made a similar, iffy, start and it remains to be seen just where she is really going. Perhaps she doesn't know herself: it seems that way to me.
@8 Marti Llazo
Aug 30th, 2016 - 06:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Sounds like the Argentine informal workers have 'solved' the pension problem for themselves by declaring part of their income, thereby completing enough years to qualify. Why can't the Chilean ones do the same? Or is the problem that their employers don't want to pay taxes and worry about employment laws, so they can't declare anything?
@10 ChrisR
Yes, Germany doesn't have to worry about money in the downturn, because it has a strong economy and little national debt. I think it's fair to give Merkel and her government at least some of the credit for this. Certainly the Germans are happy to keep reelecting her, and her popularity is still quite high even after the refugee crisis.
I doubt May knows what she is doing as far as Brexit is concerned. The problem is that people voted against the status quo, rather than for any actual plan. Every Brexiteer seems to have a different idea of what Britain should do next, so the government first has to create a plan and decide what to aim for (as well as what it is willing to compromise on), before it will be ready to negotiate with an antagonistic EU to get the best deal possible.
@ 11 DemonTree
Aug 31st, 2016 - 11:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0Apparently, May is hosting a conference at Chequers this coming weekend in an attempt to 'straighten out' the remoaners in her cabinet and get them on programme with the wishes of the electorate.
If she really wants to be a strong PM (and every power to her if that is the case) she needs to get rid of Hammond who as the leader of the remoaners is reported to be 'slowing down' the Brexit process. He has also been accused of being May's puppeteer, though I do not subscribe to that myself.
Merkel has stated that Britain MUST sign article 50 before anything is done to move Brexit forward, she has of course been battered by the combined forces of MB, BMW and VW who really are worried about their main European market outside Germany (the UK) will be mistreated by the Eurocrats resulting in massive loss of sales .
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