DMac
23rd March 2011, 02:00 PM
Obama praises Chile's policies that he won't permit for us (http://comments.americanthinker.com/read/1/790484.html)
By Thomas Lifson
Monday, President Obama was gushing with praise for Chile's reforms, which are exactly the things he blocks from happening in the US. If Chile's reforms are so good, why isn't he encouraging them in America, too? Things like privatizing social security and fiscal discipline and free trade -- does he ever permit those things here? He must think we are so rich the laws of economics don't apply to us. Or more darkly, doesn't want any winning formulas to make America too successfulInvestors Business Daily has some excellent thoughts on the subject.
About Chile's 'Miracle' (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=566710&p=2)
Posted 03/21/2011 06:47 PM ET
Next, economist Jose Pinera, Chile's Labor and Social Security Minister, privatized social security. The plan helped the government balance its books and let workers choose between personal retirement accounts or the bankrupt state-run pension system. Workers could keep their own money, invest it, decide when to retire, and, best of all, owned their pensions as property they could leave to heirs. Some 97% of Chileans switched.
Pinera's privatized accounts not only outperformed the state system by a factor of 10, but the savings they created provided capital to rebuild the country.
The last step came as Chile slashed tariffs and opened itself to the world. It signed more free-trade pacts than any nation, 58 at last count, which gave it access to 2 billion customers, an outsize market to swim in for a relatively small nation.
That enabled the country to specialize in what it did best — seafood, fruit, wine and its traditional mining exports. Its citizens got rich.
All three pillars upon which Chile's stunning transformation rests can be duplicated in any country, which is why so many imitate these reforms.
But oddly enough, not the U.S. Under Obama's leadership, the U.S. continues to put its head in the sand on runaway federal spending, dismisses privatizing Social Security without discussion and ices free trade.
One thing that should come of the trip to Latin America is for Obama to take his own advice on Chile and look closer at its economic lessons.
And if he doesn't, the rest of us should.
By Thomas Lifson
Monday, President Obama was gushing with praise for Chile's reforms, which are exactly the things he blocks from happening in the US. If Chile's reforms are so good, why isn't he encouraging them in America, too? Things like privatizing social security and fiscal discipline and free trade -- does he ever permit those things here? He must think we are so rich the laws of economics don't apply to us. Or more darkly, doesn't want any winning formulas to make America too successfulInvestors Business Daily has some excellent thoughts on the subject.
About Chile's 'Miracle' (http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=566710&p=2)
Posted 03/21/2011 06:47 PM ET
Next, economist Jose Pinera, Chile's Labor and Social Security Minister, privatized social security. The plan helped the government balance its books and let workers choose between personal retirement accounts or the bankrupt state-run pension system. Workers could keep their own money, invest it, decide when to retire, and, best of all, owned their pensions as property they could leave to heirs. Some 97% of Chileans switched.
Pinera's privatized accounts not only outperformed the state system by a factor of 10, but the savings they created provided capital to rebuild the country.
The last step came as Chile slashed tariffs and opened itself to the world. It signed more free-trade pacts than any nation, 58 at last count, which gave it access to 2 billion customers, an outsize market to swim in for a relatively small nation.
That enabled the country to specialize in what it did best — seafood, fruit, wine and its traditional mining exports. Its citizens got rich.
All three pillars upon which Chile's stunning transformation rests can be duplicated in any country, which is why so many imitate these reforms.
But oddly enough, not the U.S. Under Obama's leadership, the U.S. continues to put its head in the sand on runaway federal spending, dismisses privatizing Social Security without discussion and ices free trade.
One thing that should come of the trip to Latin America is for Obama to take his own advice on Chile and look closer at its economic lessons.
And if he doesn't, the rest of us should.