U.S. or Chile?
Picture this: A country with a growing gap between rich and poor, where the legislature and political parties are extremely unpopular, though individual politicians sometimes have solid approval ratings. People even protest in the streets at times, though as yet there is no coherent independent political movement. The two main political parties/coalitions point fingers at each other, but when push comes to shove they agree just to create commissions to avoid making difficult decisions.
The United States or Chile?
6 comments:
Why not both?
Certainly. I just thought the one question had more rhetorical flourish.
Under the Concertacion, Chile's gap between rich and poor was actually declining (albeit at a snail's pace). That may not be true now.
In the United States, the gap between rich and poor has been growing for the last 30 years.
One other thing I found interesting. Recent data indicates that the average Chilean now lives longer than the average American.
When the richest country in the world has a lower average life expectancy than that of Chile, you gotta figure that the United States has some very serious social problems.
Agree with Justin - and economic problems as well. What a mess up there...
Other data I've seen indicates that the United States' homicide rate is more than three times that of Chile. One might think that this would be a source of embarrassment for us, but few Americans seem to be aware of such facts.
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