Chile, Latin-America's first Developed Country?

[saci]

Difference between Chile and Brazil is enormous. I've traveled to some Chilean cities (Santiago, Coquimbo/La Serena, Antofagasta). And the difference was really noticeable. Public transportation works, the people are richer and the "slums" would be just "poor" in Brazil. I also felt a lot safer. Antofagasta and Northern Chile is sort of poor, but not like in my country. Here we have very small, very rich areas, very small middle class areas, and HUGE slums/poor suburbs. Chile might not be a developed country yet, but it is definitely better than its neighbors.

lol 6% of Brazilians live in slums.

[Heldt]

Official slums. Suburbs are just sometimes as bad as slums. And rural areas are precarious, except for SP, PR, SC, RS.

[curupira]

Not really. Have you traveled all around Brazil like me? There are a lot of social problems indeed. But they are exaggerated abroad, not downplayed. The difference between Chile and us is that Brazil has potential whereas Chile doesn't. Chile live in a land filled with the worst earthquakes on Earth, with deserts (like the Atacama) and other inhospitable areas, with only 3% of arable lands. Brazil is one of the 5 largest countries in the world, projected to be in a couple of decades one of the top 5 largest economies in the world. We have geopolitical potential, something Chile does not. We are played down constantly in the media, whereas Chile is not (the opposite rather, it is usually cheered, since they don't matter), as we could potentially matter, something Chile never will. Just like China and Russia get highly negative international media coverage, we also do. Fact is, most of the industrial production is here, not anywhere else in Latin America.

We know that as Brazil goes, so will go the rest of that Latin American Continent

Richard Nixon, president of the US
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=3247

Chile is a knife pointed at the heart of Antarctica; i.e irrelevant

Henry Kissinger, top geopolitical analyst
http://books.google.com.br/books?id=...ife%22&f=false

Official slums. Suburbs are just sometimes as bad as slums. And rural areas are precarious, except for SP, PR, SC, RS.

[Incal]

Yeah, they are on its way. Chile is the only country now in South America whose citizens don't need a visa to visit the US.

[Smaug]

I think so.

[Heldt]

You're kidding, right? Japan has a lot of earthquakes as well, countries like Norway or New Zealand have very few percentages of arable lands as well. A quote from Kissinger in the book you posted: "Chile's economy is of course far smaller than those of Argentina and Brazil, with their huge populations, but it is more dynamic and better managed, with an industrious, well educated workforce.".

Chile's social and economic indicators are the best (as a whole) in Latin America.

GDP(PPP) per capita Chile: US$ 23,165 Brazil: US$15,153
HDI(2013) Chile: 0.822 Brazil: 0.744
Literacy: Chile: 98.6 % Brazil: 91.3 %
Life expectancy: Chile: 79.5 years Brazil: 76.2 years

The list goes on. I love Brazil, it is my country and and would give my life for it, but it has a huge amount of problems which should be recognized.

[curupira]

No, I'm not. I'm serious. Since you throwed in Brazil in a one sided comparison, I had to set in a more thorough perspective. Japan may never rise to the stuff they have aspired to (since Hideyoshi), exactly because of its physical condition. Contrary to Chile, Brazil has a well developed industrial sector and technology of its own. Chile is largely still dependent on copper. Brazil is home to the 3rd/4th largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, f.e.

The industrial sector of Brazil is one of the most developed and sophisticated in the world, ok?

This is just one indicator, an important one (I could add many more), of how industrial Brazil has become (one of the top ten steel manufacturers in the world):

Crude steel production (million metric tons):
RankCountry/Region2007200820092010201120122013
— World1,351.31326.51,219.71,413.61,490.11552.91607. 2
1 People's Republic of China494.9500.3573.6626.7683.3724.7779.0
- European Union210.2198.2139.3172.8177.7168.6165.6
2 Japan120.2118.787.5109.6107.6107.2110.6
3 United States98.191.458.280.686.288.687.0
4 India53.557.862.868.372.277.381.2
5 Russia72.468.560.066.968.770.669.4
6 South Korea51.553.648.658.568.569.366.0
7 Germany48.645.832.743.844.342.742.6
8 Turkey25.826.825.329.034.135.934.7
9 Brazil 33.833.726.532.835.234.734.2
10 Ukraine42.837.329.933.635.332.932.8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...eel_production

Steel production in Latin America:



Industry accounts for 27,4% of our GDP (agriculture only 5.4%). By comparison, industry accounts for 27,5% of the Japanese GDP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...or_composition

In addition, Brazil is one of the top 10 ten countries by industrial output, the 6th in the world world (in Asia only China and Japan area ahead of Brazil, not even India, or the Asian tigers surpass us):

Largest countries by industrial output at market exchange rates according to IMF, 2014
Economy
Countries by industrial output at market exchange rates in 2014 (billions in USD)
(---) European Union
4,650
(01) China
4,542
(02) United States
3,418
(03) Japan
1,241
(04) Germany
1,167
(05) Russia
785
(06) Brazil
585
(07) United Kingdom
580
(08) France
540
(09) Italy
530
(10) South Korea
513

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry

Out of the top 20 manufacturers in the world, only Brazil, Mexico and Argentina appear:

Rank Country/Region (Millions of $US) Year
World 9,963,056 2010
European Union 2,257,019
1 United States 1,771,400
2 China 1,756,621
Eurozone 1,744,073
3 Japan 1,063,593
4 Germany 610,184
5 South Korea 313,429
6 Brazil 308,125
7 Italy 306,196
8 France 253,608
9 Russia 252,125
10 India 238,621
11 United Kingdom 229,615
12 Indonesia 205,632
13 Mexico 202,974
14 Spain 172,433
15 Canada 169,120
16 Turkey 125,825
17 Thailand 113,606
18 Australia 98,344
19 Argentina 84,100
20 Poland 76,438

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufac...ent_known_Data

The Bahamas have a higher GDP PPP per capita than Chile. Being a continental country, with a difficult history as ours, it is more difficult to get a higher HDI. Still we're on par with major countries like Russia, above China, India and Indonesia, other major countries.

Bahamas

GDP (PPP) 2012 estimate
Per capita $31,382

Chile

GDP (PPP) 2013 estimate
Per capita $19,475

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile

You're kidding, right? Japan has a lot of earthquakes as well, countries like Norway or New Zealand have very few percentages of arable lands as well. A quote from Kissinger in the book you posted: "Chile's economy is of course far smaller than those of Argentina and Brazil, with their huge populations, but it is more dynamic and better managed, with an industrious, well educated workforce.".

Chile's social and economic indicators are the best (as a whole) in Latin America.

GDP(PPP) per capita Chile: US$ 23,165 Brazil: US$15,153
HDI(2013) Chile: 0.822 Brazil: 0.744
Literacy: Chile: 98.6 % Brazil: 91.3 %
Life expectancy: Chile: 79.5 years Brazil: 76.2 years

The list goes on. I love Brazil, it is my country and and would give my life for it, but it has a huge amount of problems which should be recognized.

[Brighton]

I agree Santiago and some other cities are similar to Spanish ones, but overall Spain is very different from Chile when comes to infrastructure, security, levels of inequality, etc. And we don't have nothing like the callampas.

Yes but the fact that you call them callampas means your source of info is Wikipedia.. since no one ever calls them like that anymore haha.

But yah I agree with everything except the using of the word "very" regarding security and infrastructure. I really didn't find a MASSIVE/BIG difference between small cities in Spain (Almeria, Granada, etc.) and small cities in Chile (La Serena, Curico, Iquique, etc.)

Barcelona is more dangerous than Santiago.. a friend got pickpocketed the first day we arrived. You had to be extremely careful, which doesn't happen in Santiago..

Levels of inequality are way higher in Chile than Spain, that we can agree on.

[Brighton]

The top 5 Latin American countries by HDI:

1 Chile - (Ruled by a Socialist party)

1. Chile had a centre-right government a year ago.
2. The difference between centre-left and centre-right in Chile is not like in America. They tend to compromise a lot and be both very pro-free market.
3. Chile's policies, if anything, have been way more centre-right than centre-left - even if they centre-left has governed for many years after Pinochet.

[Bell Beaker]

The top 5 Latin American countries by HDI:

1 Chile - (Ruled by a Socialist party)
2 Cuba - (Ruled by a Communist party)
3 Argentina - (Ruled by Left-wing faction of a Third Positionist/Fascist party)
4 Uruguay - (Ruled by a Socialist-Communist coalition)
5 Venezuela - (Ruled by a Socialist party)

This speaks volumes.

Also those 5 countries are the Latin American countries excepting Brazil with higher number of European/Whites!