{"id":27324,"date":"2019-11-12T12:35:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T17:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/?p=27324"},"modified":"2019-11-13T10:59:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T15:59:39","slug":"myths-truths-inequality-chile-extent-explains-outbursts-shaking-advanced-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com\/blog\/myths-truths-inequality-chile-extent-explains-outbursts-shaking-advanced-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Myths and Truths of Inequality in Chile: To What Extent this explains the outbursts shaking this advanced country"},"content":{"rendered":"

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After returning from our vacation in Chile, I was very interested in current events.\u00a0 We were in the deep south and unaffected by the riots but not insensitive to the plight of the people.\u00a0 This is a story that has played out across Europe, the Central and South America.\u00a0 And even more so today in the US – Inequality and the widening gap between the wealthy and poor of nations.<\/p>\n

Here is a great article my friend Geoffrey W W McRae at GTSA<\/a>\u00a0published recently.<\/p>\n

The profound differences between the upper tiers and the rest of the population are presented as the unique cause of the phenomenal crisis that the country has been experiencing for the past three weeks. However, the statistics show a contradictory reality, which does not stand up to simplistic explanations.<\/em><\/p>\n

After the deep economic reforms implemented during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and since deepened since the return of democracy in 1990, Chile became a paradigm.<\/strong> For free-market advocates, it was a role model. For left-wing socialist supporters, it became all that is wrong.<\/p>\n

For many years, the country\u2019s strong economic growth seemed to confirm the correct path was being taken. Now, the social outburst that makes one of the continent\u2019s most established democracies rebound would suggest that the latter might also have some points.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reality, however, is more of nuances and cannot be understood by absolute categories.<\/p>\n

Inequality in Chile and Latin America<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The facts, repeated to exhaustion, is, therefore, no less true: Latin America is the most unequal region in the world.<\/strong> It is true that it is not the poorest, but it is where the greatest distances between those who have more and those who have less.<\/p>\n

Therefore, it should not be a surprise that Chile is among the most unequal countries on<\/strong> the planet. Contrary to what is believed, however, it is far from the most inequitable country in the region.<\/p>\n

If the Gini index, which estimates the distribution of income with a coefficient ranging from 0 \u2013 absolute equality \u2013 to 1 \u2014 absolute inequality \u2014 is taken as a reference, inequity in Chile is 0.454,<\/strong> according to data from Cepal, which excludes countries such as Argentina and Venezuela because of the unreliability of their public statistics system in recent years.<\/p>\n