Milton Friedman in 'It's A Miracle'

How did Chile avoid becoming like Cuba? Milton Friedman's economic policy has something to do with it.

Peter Bagge | From the January 2021 issue

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Jerryskids 5 years ago

Look, you can't just go around comparing Chile to Cuba any more than you can go around comparing the United States to China, you must compare it to Utopia. Look at all the problems with both Chile and the United States! In Utopia they don't have these problems, in Utopia you've got flying unicorns shitting gold nickels that solve most every problem.
1. Johnny B 5 years ago
  
  Well stated, Jerry's. This is why everyone should be libertarian at the margin, which is to say making things more free is always beneficial to society. The problem, of course, is that those who might lose know exactly who they are and scream like hell, while those who may benefit are typically unaware of that, so they remain silent.
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damiskec 5 years ago

"How did Chile avoid becoming like Cuba?"

Helicopters

"Milton Friedman's economic policy has ~~something~~ absolutely nothing to do with it."

FTF the non-socialists.
1. theomore 5 years ago
  
  Socialism always leads to poverty. If the people who wanted socialism would move to socialist countries we would all be happier.
  
  Correction: The people who moved to socialistic nations would not be happy . . . They would have met socialism up close and in their face. Socialism is always unpopular with the great majority of those who live under it. The only people happy with socialism is that small sliver of the ruling class . . . and the great masses of people who have never lived under it.
Ken Shultz 5 years ago

The point that Pinochet was in power whether libertarian capitalists liked it or not is underappreciated, and just because people are suffering under a brutal dictator doesn't mean they should have to suffer under bad policy, too.

I don't suppose Bagge would follow this one up with a strip about Jean Kirkpatrick, but authoritarians like Pinochet being more susceptible to liberal influences than communist totalitarian dictatorships was not only foreseeable but also foreseen.

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/jeane-kirkpatrick/dictatorships-double-standards/

Pinochet held a referendum on his own rule and stepped down when he lost. There was never any chance of Castro doing that--which gives a whole new meaning to the term "permanent revolution".
1. Gray_Jay 5 years ago
  
  You would think Pinochet's example, losing that referendum in 1988, might have been a clue for Daniel Ortega in 1990. Whoops.
  
  They later reelected Ortega though, which further proves I'll never understand Latin American politics.
  1. Earth Skeptic 5 years ago
    
    Just watch Bananas again.
2. Mother's Lament 5 years ago
  
  I can't think of any other dictator who voluntarily left power like that. It was a multi-step process as he went back to the army before retiring from there too, but he did leave power completely and of his own accord.
  1. Halykan 4 years ago
    
    Uh, I'm not 100% sure, but didn't Tito also leave power voluntarily? And he was still popular when he did so, iirc.
3. Roberta 5 years ago
  
  Would Chile have avoided disaster without someone like Pinochet? He was what they needed at the time, and went away when he realized he was no longer what they needed.
SIV 5 years ago

How did Chile avoid becoming like Cuba?

They killed their communists.
1. Roberta 5 years ago
  
  They say you can't kill an -ism. But if you kill enough of the -ists, that's enough.
2. 68W58 5 years ago
  
  It was pretty much the same with Finland as well.
Nemo Aequalis 5 years ago

How did Chile avoid becoming like Cuba?

They got Pinochet. When do we get one?
Sometimes Bad Is Bad 5 years ago

Cmon we all know it’s because Sting wrote a song about it in the 80s. He single handedly got Pinochet removed. Whereas he decided to forgo writing songs about Castro. Not sure why.
Roberta 5 years ago

I love how the trees are laughing in the title frame.
1. Roberta 5 years ago
  
  I like the expression of that one at Stanford, 1982 too: something between a smirk and a scowl.
  1. Roberta 5 years ago
    
    Like a jack o' lantern.
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2. The Encogitationer 5 years ago
  
  Are those trees clones of the Charlie Brown Kite-Eating Tree from Peanuts?
Bored Lawyer 5 years ago

Love this panel:

"But the disparity between the rich and poor."

"The poverty rate's been cut in half."

That encapsulates the difference between leftists and capitalists. Leftists want everyone to be equal, and if that takes making everyone equally miserable, then they go for it.
1. Jerryskids 5 years ago
  
  +1 Black people getting first crack at the vaccine.
2. 68W58 5 years ago
  
  Thatcher had their number-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGS1TSIEZP0
Hattori Hanzo 5 years ago

Bagge is still producing great work. Always look forward to his Reason strips.
1. Mongo 5 years ago
  
  Me too, HH.
The Encogitationer 5 years ago

So...why didn't opponents of Pinochet send their own consultant to clean up Chile's obviouly rotten record on civil liberties while letting Friedman do his thing on Chile's economics? It would have saved heliocopter fuel and also show to Chileans how magnanimous a free society is because even opponents of that society can live in it and enjoy it. Just a thought.
T. Lord 4 years ago

a) I don't know if Peter Bagge reads the comments, but if he or anyone with the power to pass on my thanks to him in person does, Thank You. I have read reason for a few decades now, and Bagge's comics here (and in print) are fantastic. My brother plugged his comics to me first, and was right. This one is dead-on, too. I'm sure lots of loony libertarians at least passed through the "Free to Choose" gateway, and also as a choice among evils prefer the Chilean arc to the Cuban one but without super-endorsing it, either.

b) Is there a comment moderation force readers can join? The work-from-home-google-income stuff may be better than the trollish inside jokes / nitwit comment feuds, but not by much. I don't read every site's comment section, since no one does, but the get-rich-quick comments here are weirdly pervasive. But having worked for a site with a comments section, I know that trolls and spammers are tough, and that there's no great permanent answer. Still, I'd love a down-vote button at least. It's a pretty good feel-good measure, if nothing else 🙂
1. T. Lord 4 years ago
  
  Ha! I take back my complaint in (b), supra. I logged in for the first time in ages in order to post my mild rant about comment quality and wonder where the downvote / flag-for-review button is, without realizing that now that I'm logged in, voila, there it is.
  
  So, uh, Never Mind.
PeteRR 4 years ago

My GF was 15 when the military ousted/killed Allende. She lived through both the communists and the subsequent military dictatorship. She said the military was bad and eventually corrupt, but Allende and his thugs were far worse. They were removed from power before they could go full Cuba.
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Milton Friedman in 'It's A Miracle'

How did Chile avoid becoming like Cuba? Milton Friedman's economic policy has something to do with it.

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