Chile, a Wealthy Version of a Shithole

RL: The nations that have tried Friedmanomics in the most extreme form have been the most ruined by it. Chile was wrecked by the Chicago Boys in the most radical economic experiment of the modern era.

John UK: I think you are wrong there. Chile is one of the better performing Latin American countries and considered a success story.

They started doing well when they junked the Chicago Boys and reinstituted state intervention in the economy. Still, there was a massive wealth transfer under Pinochet from the bottom 2/3 to the upper 1/3. Labor got totally creamed, but that was the whole idea. Pinochetism was Class War from Day One.

Chile is a “wealthy shithole.” It’s sickening. They have one of the worst rich-poor gaps on Earth. The rich live like kings, but they have huge walls and gates around their homes, often topped with barbed wire. There is a tremendous amount of property crime, mostly the poorer 2/3 stealing stuff from their rich overlords (class war disguised as “street crime”. Do you understand what is going on here? The rich lived in armed and gated communities to ward off the teeming, thieving, miserable masses down below.

The poorer areas are teeming with crime, misery and gangs, but no one cares. The public schools are in ruins because the rich won’t pay for them, and they all send their kids to private school. The schools are literally falling apart. Literally. As in, the roofs are caving in.

I have met Chileans. Even so-called liberal Chileans display a shocking amount of racism and class hatred from a US point of view. It’s out in the open for all to see.

In Chile, a man must have “soft hands.” If you have “hard hands,” this means you work for a living, and you’re a no good scum. Soft hands means you don’t work with your hands, you’re not a laboring man.

The hatred and ridicule for the Indians is off the charts. I thought my ears were going to fall off when I heard it.

The class hatred in Chile is so thick you can cut it with a knife. The Left is radical, angry and miserable. It was armed all through Pinochet’s regime and carried out regular attacks, including an expertly pulled-off assassination attempt that nearly killed Pinochet and killed many people in his convoy. After Pinochet departed, the Left was still armed, and carried out bombings through the 1990′s. Under the Bush Administration, when Dan Quayle went to Chile, the day he showed up, he was greeted with several bombs.

Lately, the Left is not armed, but they still stage violent riots on a regular basis. The Right is also armed and very radical, and the military still effectively rules Chile. The death squad apparatus has not been dismantled. Chile is an example of extreme wealth disparity where both the Right and Left are totally polarized, very militant and dangerous.

The economy completley collapsed under Pinochet when he brought the Chicago Boyz in. The collapse was so hard that he threw the Boyz out and reinsituted heavy state intervention in the economy. For the rest of Pinochet’s term, the “growth” consisted of growing out of the horrific slump the Friedmanites had caused. When Pinochet left office, GNP per capita was the same as it was in 1973 under Allende. Pinochetism was a monumental failure in all ways except for Class War and mass wealth transfer.

I don’t care what Chile’s GNP is. It’s a shithole, and I don’t want to live there. I think Chile is the model for the US Republican Party.

Chile still has relatively good health figures due to the heavily socialist nature of its safety net. From the 1960′s-1973, a large safety net was installed in Chile, in particular, national health care. Chile’s good health figures are entirely due to this socialism.

As we know, capitalism is bad for your health. Or, capitalist health is an oxymoron.

100% of Republican Presidential Candidates Support the Ryan Plan

The Paul Ryan, to basically destroy the US state completely except for military spending, that is, to decimate nearly all US social and non-military spending, is extremely unpopular with voters. In particular, his proposal to wipe out Medicare completely and force people to buy their own medical insurance instead out of their own pockets, is wildly unpopular. Older voters have mobbed his office in Chicago, screaming bloody murder at him.

Nevertheless, the apparently suicidal or suicidally arrogant Republicans are charging ahead full speed with this deeply unpopular proposal. Didn’t the Greeks talk about the arrogant hubris of the powerful?

Why? The Republicans are plutocrats. I have been studying 3rd World plutocratic parties for a long time now. The first thing you need to know about them is that they don’t give two flying fucks about popular opinion. They stay in power due to the power of the police and military and their near-100% control of the media machine. Control of the media machine allows the plutocrats to brainwash hundreds of millions of non-plutocratic citizens to go along with programs that are not in their intersets.

3rd World reactionaries never stop their reactionary proposals due to strong public opposition. They just charge right ahead and figure they will get away with it somehow. They don’t answer to the public, and they don’t even listen to the public. They live in alternate universe from the average person, and their wealth has imbued them with deep arrogance in that they think they are unstoppable and can whatever they please and not one soul can do anything about it.

If a popular, anti-plutocratic party ever wins, as in Venezuela, Bolivia, Honduras, Haiti and Ecuador recently, the plutocrats just try military coups and employer lockouts and strikes. They try secessionist campaigns and the use of armed violence, from rioting in the streets to assassinations and massacres.

“Power comes from the barrel of a gun” is not empty rhetoric. It’s observable fact.

In the past, the plutocrats could always steal elections or if the Left won somehow, overthrow them with a coup. Then they used death squads to massacre the Left for years to decades. The message was clear: elect the Left and there will be a coup followed a nationwide slaughter of the Left extending for years to decades. That’s quite a threat. Knowing that, would you get involved in Left politics or vote for the Left?

Another thing I learned about 3rd world elites is that they never have enough cash. In El Salvador the elite is about 14 families, and they own just about everything that isn’t locked down in the country. I used to follow Salvadoran politics on a daily basis, including the Assembly. It would leave your mouth gaping. Salvadoran politics consisted of proposals, on a near daily basis, to transfer wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 10%. I thought there was nothing left to steal.

For the rich, there is never nothing left to steal.

No matter how rich a rich man is, he’s never rich enough. He always wants more. And he’s going to get it from you.

I just checked out the Republican contenders, and they are all down 100% with the Ryan Plan. Some are talking out of both sides of their mouths, but their words don’t lie. Even Gingrich, Romney and Tim Pawlenty, the most moderate Republican, are down with the plan. They’re weaseling around now, but they’ve already coming out for it on record. If you were basing your vote on Medicare, would you trust these weasels? I would not.

All but 3 House Republicans voted for the Ryan Plan. All but 5 Senate Republicans voted for it. The dissenters were Scott Brown, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Rand Paul and Olympia Snowe. Paul voted against it because it was not radical enough.

The recent bellweather election in New York’s 26th District was a real wakeup call. McCain receieved 76% of the vote in that election in 2008. It’s only gone Democrat 2 times in the last 125 years. But this year, a Democrat actually won the seat. The issue? The Republican had voted for the Ryan Plan.

The Republaican are now trying their usual “Mediscare” line. They’ve opposed Medicare since Day One, but they’ve always lied and said that they supported it. Even now that they are killing it, they claim that they are actually saving it. It’s the Democrats who are killing it.

They’ve had success with this typical plutocratic mass lying in the past, but now it doesn’t seem to be working. Ryan is screaming that people don’t support his plan because Democrats are distorting it and lying about it. Mediscare all over again. But he’s wrong. People don’t oppose the Ryan Plan because the Dems lied about it and now they don’t understand it. They oppose it because they’re figuring out what it’s really all about.

People aren’t as dumb as the ruling class assumes they are. A fool thinks he can trick people forever with no one catching on.

There’s good evidence that the Ryan Plan won’t even lower the deficit. There are so many crazy assumptions in there – discretionary spending down to Herbert Hoover levels – yes, America would return to Time of Herbert Hoover – but all the while vast cuts in taxes for the rich and corporations. If you factor in the wild tax cuts and along with the spending cuts, the Ryan Plan may well not even reduce the deficit by one nickel.

Politically, the near future looks interesting from a progressive point of view.

Belief In Cryptids/The Paranormal Is Not Anti-Scientific

In fact, I would argue that it’s not even a matter for science to deal with at all. That is, most of it is not even testable by science. If it’s not testable, it’s outside the realm of science.

I am a scientific minded person, and some Bigfoot scofftics have tried to convince me that being scientific and believing in Bigfoot is not possible, therefore, I am obviously not a scientific person.

But this is not true.

I believe in Bigfoot because I have been studying the issue for 44 years. After all, the Patterson-Gimlin film was shot right here in my state. After 44 years of reviewing the evidence, I feel that the entire body of evidence, including much good, hard scientific evidence, shows that these creatures are real. Obviously, we will need a “slab monkey” – a Bigfoot body, live or dead – before it’s proven for good, but the totality of present evidence is enough for me.

I generally accept the scientific paradigm.

Evolution is a proven theory, and intelligent design has no evidence.

The cholesterol/saturated fat theory of heart disease has been proven.

Homeopathy has been shown not to work, further, there is no logical mechanism.

Palmerian chiropractic has been shown not to work, further, the theory makes no sense. But it’s good for back and neck pain.

The Earth is obviously billions of years old and not 6,000 years old.

The Eastern mountain lion went extinct, except in Michigan.

Anthropogenic global warming is a correct theory, and deniers have a political motivation.

Trees don’t cause smog.

Cigarette smoking causes cancer.

Chelation theory doesn’t work, and it’s even nutty in theory.

In many of these cases, we have had multiple case-controlled placebo blind studies, and even multivariate analyses of multiple studies. In others, there’s a lot of evidence for one theory and zero for its competitor.

When it comes to cryptids and paranormal stuff – ghosts, spirits, ESP, UFO’s or this or that, science is completely out to lunch. There have been no case-controlled placebo blind studies showing the non-existence of various cryptids, nor has most paranormal stuff not yet been proven one way or the other. Even prayer is still somewhat up in the air.

A lot of this, paranormal stuff, cryptids, is nearly impossible to test scientifically anyway. So it boils down to an “evidence” battle. This stuff is nearly in the religious realm – I don’t believe it’s a matter for science, and I think science ought to leave it alone.

Unlike cholesterol or homeopathy, most cryptids haven’t been proven one way or another. There’s evidence both ways, and you pick and choose which one you want to believe in.

Either way, a belief in cryptids or the paranormal is surely not anti-scientific anymore than having a religion is.

India Versus China: Socialism Versus Capitalism

Great comment from the comments on something I’ve been talking about for a long time: the comparison between India and China.

It’s amazing looking at the Word Development Indicators and comparing China and India.

India seems more than 50 years behind China. If you look at some of the stats, like Malnutrition, India seems to be just treading water.. it’s actually worse than it was 15 years ago.

China had the good sense to build up its base with communist programs and ‘re-educate’ the parasitic upper class, and now its people are sophisticated enough to use capitalism as tool. India is still underwater dodging turds.

Keep in mind that in 1949, India’s and China’s developmental indicators, in most all respects, were completely equal. Since then, China has kicked India’s ass so bad, it’s not even funny.

The difference is one thing: Communism and socialism.

And don’t talk to us about “Indian socialism.” None of Leftists think that was any kind of real socialism.

This is why I support the Maoists in India. Not because I’m some kind of radical kook. I’m just a socialist, and Commies are a kind of a socialist too. Sure, there are a lot of battles between Commies and socialists, but the rightwingers are right about one thing: a lot of us are more or less along the same plane – some are just taking socialism a lot further than the rest of us.

Relations between Communists and soicalists have generally been more or less fraternal. The Scandinavian Social Democrats, for instance, had excellent relations with the Socialist Bloc, including the USSR, Eastern Europe, Cuba and Nicaragua. They didn’t want that model for themselves, but they were all part of the same general trend.

It’s true a lot of Communists dislike social democrats in their rhetoric, but in the real world, decent socialist countries have seldom faced large Communist insurgencies. The biggest Communist insurgencies have always been against the worst capitalist clusterfuck catastrophes. No revolutionaries are going to lead an insurgency against Hugo Chavez. Not with the world lined up the way it is nowadays.

If India is 50 years behind China and was the same as China 62 years ago, that means that in 62 years, India has made little if any progress.

One can’t help wondering how much of a role Hinduism has to play in all of this. Commenter Dota points out that there is no sense of the common good in India. Whereas Confucianism and even Islam talk a lot about the necessity of good governance, I imagine pagan Hinduism says little about this. For a society to have a working governance, there must be a sense of the common good. With no such sense, government will nothing but a corrupt nightmare of abuse and reaction.

I’m told that government is a big part of the problem in India.

First of all, it barely exists. On a per capita basis, the Indian state at all levels is about 5% of the size of even the severely slashed US state. At all levels, nearly all politicians are incredibly corrupt.

I’ve also heard that India is the land of the “unfinished product.” If you walk around India, you will find that just about all the new construction is unfinished. And a lot of it is completed. Someone gets the money to build something, they build half of it or 90% of it, siphon off the rest of the money and take off with the loot. In US society, that’s a violation of values. If you start a job, you finish it, dammit. In India, apparently no one even cares.

This extends to the middle classes. A middle class family will have a spotless home, then they take their trash and dump it out in the street. Will it ever get collected? Who knows. To put your trash in a can and have the state come pick it up requires a sense of the common good, which Indians lack.

I read an anecdote recently. A Western group recently set up a recycling campaign near a popular Indian tourist site. Aluminum in one, glass in another, newspaper in another. The Westerners would all dutifully and responsibly use the recycling bins, probably getting a morality flush out of doing so.

The Indians thought it was a joke. They refused to use even the regular trash bins. They just threw their garbage on the ground like they always do. When people asked them to use the garbage and recycling bins, the Indians, even middle class to wealthy ones, all either laughed and looked incomprehensibly. To use the bins would be to have a notion of the common good, which Indians lack. Of course they threw it on the ground. What would you expect?

India’s fuckedupness is even extending to its so-called competitiveness, which is much overrated. Chinese scientists love the homeland and are very apt to stay in the country for love of nation and other reasons. Indian scientists, no matter how much they beat their chests, “Jai Hind!” are extremely likely to leave the country. Most of its best educated hop the first plane to the hated West, where they will spend their time beating their chest about the great “Bharat” and ranting about the horrible West while living it up in the evil and inferior West that they hate so much.

India isn’t even getting its money worth educating its best and brightest. The state spends money educating them, and the first thing they do is take off.

I’ve lost faith in the ability of nearly all Indian parties to properly develop the country. Even the Communist parties are corrupt, rightwing, and do little to help the poor.

The Maoists seem to be the only hope left. I figure they could come in, lay the ground basis for real development like Mao did, then move into a “Socialism with Indian characteristics” along the lines of China’s “Socialism with Chinese characteristics,” which I critically support.

Don’t listen to rightwing liars telling you that China is some kind of Friedman/Ayn Rand radical neoliberal country. It’s not true. What China is is a mixed economy. Most importantly, there are still many dedicated Party members who work at the state level to achieve “the greatest good for the greatest number.” That’s something we don’t have in America. It’s downright anti-American.

But it’s a great definition of socialism: “the greatest good for the greatest number.”