Chili vs. U.S.A.- Chili Wins!

In 1975, of 72 countries, Chile was No 71 in economic freedom, today it is #4, ahead of the U.S.

Chile’s historic rate of economic growth (averaged 7% a year, 84-98)

Poverty went (from 45% to 15%)

How did this happen?

The exceptional political circumstances of this period have obscured the fact that from 1975 to 1989 a true revolution took place in Chile, involving a radical, comprehensive, and sustained move toward economic and political freedom (from a starting point where there was neither one nor the other). Several radical libertarian reforms set the country on a path toward rapid development; but it also brought democracy, restored limited government, and established the rule of law.

The Los Angeles Times said:

In the early 1970s, Chile was one of the first economies in the developing world to test such concepts as deregulation of industries, privatization of state companies, freeing of prices from government control, and opening of the home market to imports. In 1981, Chile privatized its social-security system. Many of those ideas ultimately spread throughout Latin America and to the rest of the world. They are behind the reformation of Eastern Europe and the states of the former Soviet Union today… which demonstrates, once again, the awesome power of ideas.

Don't tell me that prosperity can't occur in the far reaches of the undeveloped globe.

Market principles work, case closed. So to the economic leftists, if you really care and want to feel well of yourself, how about going cognitive and demand market principles around the globe instead of promoting smug ideologies that keep people in poverty.

Source: Jose Pinera writing at Cato.org