[Socialists] Neoliberal economic practices in Chile under Pinochet were actually quite beneficial while crises that occurred during his reign were caused by non-neoliberal actions
Why do so many of you deny the economic miracles that Chile experienced thanks to the neoliberal policies adopted by the Pinochet regime? After the socialist government was ousted from power and once Pinochet applied the advice of Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys, starting in the late 1970s, general improvement to per-capita GDP and wages occurred up until the economic crisis of 1982 which was caused not by neoliberalism but by pretty non-neoliberal decisions.
Chile's minister of finance in 1979 abandoned free floating exchange rates which was recommended by Milton Friedman, but such an act caused the peso's overvaluing which led to the inevitable economic bust, culminating in 1982 which in turn caused an incredible poverty spike of 40% in just a few years. The problem is that most observers attribute the soaring poverty rate to wealth inequality when, in truth, it was caused by that aforementioned crisis that was caused by diverging from Milton Friedman's economic advice. Thus if Chile stuck to the neoliberal guidelines from the very beginning, then Chile would've been in an even better economic standing.
Still, throughout the rest of the 1980s, GDP and per-capita GDP grew faster than the rest of Latin America and unemployment decreased from 1982 to 1990. Adding to that, Chile eventually found its way into democratic governance again after the violent coup of 1973 and Pinochet's politically barbaric regime. The main point is that though Pinochet should definitely be denounced for his human rights abuses and brutal political tactics to efface opposition, it is a fact that his liberalisation policies were a success which eventually entailed a democratic society after 1990. Even after Pinochet's reign ended, for the following years, no efforts were made by the democratic succeeders to majorly reverse Chile's economic neoliberal policies which allowed for the continued growth of the Chilean economy into the 2000s and the continued reduction of unemployment and poverty.
Sources:
https://mises.org/wire/chiles-failed-neoliberal-reform-looking-pretty-good
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w27975/w27975.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhujtDulmlg&t=179s
https://www.hoover.org/research/what-pinochet-did-chile