JOSÉ PIÑERA (@PineraJose) DEBATES NAOMI KLEIN (@NaomiAKlein)
ON TWITTER

October 15, 2010

Bravo. "Capitalism saved the Chilean Miners", a courageous and lucid column by Daniel Henninger in today's WSJ. http://is.gd/g1O5c

It was President Piñera's brother José who wrote the law privatizing the mines under Pinochet, helping create the disaster

@NaomiAKlein What are you smoking? Mina San José is a 100 years old. Our Const. Mining Law is from 1981. Here my essay: http://is.gd/g3sYa

@NaomiAKlein Or maybe you are a liitle confused because the name of both the mine and the Constitutional Mining Law author is "José".

@NaomiAKlein Do you know that in 29 years, 4 center & leftist Presidents, incl. Bachelet, did not changed a comma of the law that you abhor?

@NaomiAKlein Do you know that we are now the " Saudi Arabia" of copper & that Antofagasta (mining capital) has the top pc income of Chile?

@NaomiAKlein Do you know that copper production has multiplied 6 times and that taxes paid by mining co. finance the full education budget?

@NaomiAKlein The Mining Law is transforming hidden capital underground into human capital, health/education, to ensure the future of Chileans

@NaomiAKlein The T130 drill that rescued the 33 was provided, for free, by a private co. "born" from the 81 Mining Law. http://is.gd/g3lxG

@NaomiAKlein . FYI: Ex-socialist economist Robert Heilbroner wrote near end of his life: "Capitalism has been as unmistakable a success as socialism has been a failure. Here is the part that's hard to swallow. It has been the Friedmans, Hayeks, von Miseses who have maintained that capitalism would flourish and that socialism will develop incurable ailments...The farther to the right one looks the more prescient has been the historical foresight; the farther to the left, the left so" (hear, hear Naomi). From Dissent & quoted in WSJ, Feb. 27, 1991.

@josepineraWorld author Pinochet's laws privatizing social sec + giving mining corps their sweetest deal ever is mad @ me. Why don't I care?

The reason govs didn't change the law is that @josepinera wrote it so that any changes would carry huge penalties. He bragged about it

@NaomiAKlein a) There is no mention of any penalty in CML; b) 4 centerleft gov. never even attempted to change mining property rights in CML

I quote @josepineraWorld bragging about how he had democracy proofed the mining law in The Shock Dictrine

@NaomiAKlein You are confused. The CML does not deal at all with labor or security regulations in mines. That is in Mining Code & other laws

@NaomiAKlein The CML is a LOC ("Ley Organica Const"), mandated by the Constitution. Can be changed with the same special quorums of all LOCs

@josepineraWorld Chilean "revolution"? Pretty sure it was a coup. Can't have the 80s without the 70s

RT @NaomiAKlein Chilean "revolution"? It was a coup. Can't have 80s without 70s//Do I understand you concede on CML and we move on to this?

@NaomiAKlein Waiting for your gracious concession on CML ("just a confusion") & then we can proceed to Revolution, Chicago Boys & Democracy.

@josepineraWorld I was always referring to your original mine privatization, which began the deregulation of the sector.

@NaomiAKlein There was no "privatization" law. I opposed trying to privatize Codelco (read essay) until a democratic Congress could do it, on grounds of legitimacy, since 100% of Congress (yes, even the "right") approved Allende's nationalization. My vision was to "privatize mining" by allowing private co. to also develop potential of Chile. Today aprox 2/3 copper is new private prod.

@NaomiAKlein So, a) CML is only about prop. rights (not labor/sec.nor selling state co); b) Has done great good to Chile & thus stability.

@josepineraWorld and sorry, no, i'm not debating capitalism or the coup you supported on twitter, but invite tweeps to read my book

@josepineraWorld law allowed corps 2 value concessions based on profits they could have earned far in future. $$ of changes were prohibitive.

RT @NaomiAKlein law allowed co 2 value concessions on profits they could have earned in future//Yes.It is called the Net Present Value formula

@NaomiAKlein CML cut the the Gordian Knot created by Allende's Const. change by saying that if gov. takes a mine must pay NPV= market value

@josepineraWorld Everyone knows the dictatorship didn't privatize Codelco but u opened sector to privatization. Cutting this off now.

RT @NaomiAKlein sorry, no, i'm not debating capitalism or the coup you supported on twitter, but invite to read my book//But why? Let's debate!

@NaomiAKlein You cannot run from us. Here my: "A House Divided. How Allende destroyed democracy in Chile" (Society, 2005). http://is.gd/g3Hj8

@NaomiAKlein You have never read this: The historic August 22, 1973 Resolution of the Chamber of Deputies ousting Allende http://is.gd/g3HA7

@NaomiAKlein Surely you will be astonished by this editorial of The Economist of Sept. 15, 1973: "The End of Allende". http://is.gd/g3HKj

"Temporary death of democracy in Chile regrettable but blame lies clearly with Allende...persistently overrode Constitution" (TheEconomist).

RT @NaomiAKlein ....Cutting this off now//But Naomi, Naomi. Remember old Whitman: "Stranger, if you passing meet me and desire to speak to me, why should you not speak to me? And why should I not speak to you?" (Leaves of Grass).

2) Truth is exactly the opposite: CML essential to rescue (property rights create mining boom in Chile, latest technology, T130 drill), etc.

3) What clearly helped create disaster: a negligent owner... and a leftist gov. that approved reopening an unsafe 100 years old small mine

4) Despite these facts and despite being totally unable to defend her attack, @NaomiAKlein was unwilling to withdraw her wrong statement.

5) Instead NK changed the subject to the CML expropiation criteria (??) & Allende (??). Again refuted with facts, quit abruptly the debate.

After this NK's NO TRUTH incident, the question is: Is @NaomiAKlein book (Shock Doctrine) also a (bigger) lie or confusion? We will see.

"The Shock Doctrine" (SD) of Naomi Klein is a much worse "The Da Vinci Code". A conspiracy of "Dr. Shock" (M. Friedman) to destroy the world

The one big hit of SD: the free market revolution that is changing the world began in Chile in 1975 with the "takeover" of the Chicago Boys.

SD quotes me correctly: "I returned to help found a new country, dedicated to liberty, from the ashes of the old one... the real revolution"

Historian Ferguson on Chile: "The most profound challenge to Welfare State in a generation. Thatcher & Reagan came later" http://is.gd/g7dHL

But SD is spectacularly wrong, since 1) this world ec. rev. is not a tragedy, but wonderful news for everyone & the best hope for the poor.

Two Big Facts: thks to free market reforms, POVERTY in Chile down from 45 to 15% (saving > than 3.333.333 people); 400 M. less poor in China

As the great F. von Hayek said (in Chile, 1981): "Only the free market order enables us to feed the world's population". http://is.gd/g7fOZ

2) this free market ec. rev. abhors violence of any kind. It is, in the most profound way, in favor of human rights, peace and free exchange

Voltaire: “Go into the London Stock Exchange..There the Jew, the Mahometan & the Christian deal with one another as if they were of the same religion, and reserve the name of infidel for those who go bankrupt. After, some go to the synagogue, others for a drink" (6, Phil.Letters)

In Chile, the peaceful restoration of democracy was another big triumph of the freedom rev. and thus its stability. Here: http://is.gd/g7huG

SD hides that when the Left initiates violence, military repression follows. Here War Decl. on Dem. of Chile's Socialism: http://is.gd/g7hNn

Naomi Klein: "I don’t fetishize guerrilla violence but there are situations where people are justified in taking up arms" http://is.gd/g7ias

To N. Klein one of those "situations" that justifies "taking up arms" is in Chiapas, Mexico, ¡against a democratic gov!   http://is.gd/g7ias

Naomi: ”I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken” and do not promote violence in Latin Am. Not again!