Chile Was the Perfect Economy (Then It Exploded)

Описание: For forty years, Chile was the model. The proof that free markets work. The success story that economists and policymakers pointed to when they wanted to show that developing countries could break through to prosperity.
The numbers were undeniable. Fastest-growing economy in Latin America. Poverty reduced from 45% to 8%. Inflation crushed after decades of chaos. Stable institutions. Investment-grade credit. OECD membership. The "Chilean miracle" wasn't propaganda—it was real, measurable, documented.
International institutions celebrated. The World Bank published reports. The IMF cited Chile as an example. Business schools taught case studies. Political scientists studied the smooth transition from Pinochet's dictatorship to stable democracy. Everything seemed to work.
Then October 2019 happened. A modest subway fare increase triggered the largest protests in Chilean history. Millions marched. Cities burned. The military returned to streets for the first time since the dictatorship. Within weeks, the entire political system that had governed Chile for three decades collapsed. The constitution was scrapped. The economic model was repudiated. Everything that seemed permanent turned out to be fragile.
How did the perfect economy explode?
This video investigates the gap between Chile's impressive statistics and the lived reality of its citizens. We examine the Chicago Boys and their radical free-market reforms under Pinochet—policies that created growth but also inequality that compounded for decades. We trace how privatization of pensions, healthcare, and education created a two-tier society where quality depended entirely on ability to pay. We analyze how the "Chilean model" prioritized macroeconomic stability while ignoring the accumulating social pressures underneath.
We explore the specific grievances that drove people into the streets: pension payments so low that retirees couldn't survive, healthcare waiting lists that effectively denied treatment to the poor, student debt that consumed decades of earnings, a sense that prosperity was visible everywhere but accessible nowhere.
We ask difficult questions: Were the protesters right that the model failed? Or did they destroy something that was actually working? Is there a version of the Chilean model that addresses these concerns? What lessons should other developing countries take from Chile's explosion?
This is the story of what happens when the numbers look right but the people feel wrong. When growth charts diverge from lived experience. When a "miracle" turns out to have been built on hidden fractures.
📊 In this video:
The Chicago Boys and the origins of the Chilean model
Pinochet's economic reforms: what they actually did
The transition to democracy without changing economics
30 years of growth: the miracle in numbers
Privatized pensions: the AFP system explained
Healthcare apartheid: FONASA vs. ISAPRE
Education as a debt trap
The inequality that statistics missed
October 2019: anatomy of an explosion
Why a subway fare broke the system
The constitutional crisis and its aftermath
Boric's government: dismantling or reforming?
What Chile gets right that protesters ignore
What the model got wrong that defenders deny
Lessons for developing economies worldwide

🔔 Subscribe for nuanced analysis of economic models, development strategies, and the gap between policy and reality.
👍 This video challenges narratives on both sides. If you appreciate complexity over slogans, like the video and share it with someone who cares about economic development.
💬 What's your take on Chile? Did the protesters destroy something valuable or expose something broken? This one deserves a real debate in the comments.
📚 Sources include Chilean economic data, protest testimonies, academic analyses from across the political spectrum. Bibliography in pinned comment.
🇨🇱 Filmed partly in Santiago and Valparaíso during our research trip.
#Chile #ChileanMiracle #ChicagoBoys #Pinochet #LatinAmerica #EconomicReform #Protest #SocialMovements #Inequality #Pensions #Privatization #EstallidoSocial #Boric #SantiagoDeChile #Economics #Development #FreeMarket #Neoliberalism #EconomicHistory #SocialPolicy #LatAmPolitics #EmergingMarkets #PoliticalEconomy #ReformDebate #DevelopmentEconomics #CountryAnalysis #GlobalEconomy #ModelThatFailed #WhatWentWrong #LessonsLearned