Chile’s plan for state control in lithium dismays business

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[–]Drewski 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

Sounds like Chile needs some freedom!

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

This doesn't usually end well does it, I hope this goes better for Chile than history has led me to expect when a south american country decides they want to control their own resources

[–]Drewski 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Maybe a revolution of the people is in order to overthrow that dictator Gabriel Boric. I'm sure the CIA will help ensure their election integrity.

[–]notafed 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Boy, does this remind me of the San Sebastian Mines incident in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". Except, companies won't willingly go to their destruction, they'll just stay away.

[–]thatrightwinger 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Nations never learn: nationalizing industries harms the industry in several ways.

  1. Because governments don't care about reaching profitability, they tend not to improve efficiency or improve the extraction, either in seeking property sources or improving processes. Quality drags.

  2. Corruption becomes rife. Positions get awarded based on personal connections, rather than anything close to merit. People can be put in jobs they have no business holding, and the industry weakens.

  3. Again, lacking any profit motive, government agencies are not motivated to stand up to strikers and will commonly offer sweet contracts to the workers and play footsie with the lawyers who "lead" the unions themselves. This is all done at the taxpayer expense.

  4. No one cares about innovation. Nationalized industries don't have fresh blood who have new ideas of doing things. These efficiencies would actually be punished and ignored as they would interfere with existing union contracts. You can't bring in a machine that efficiently does the work of ten men when you are under long term obligation to keep those ten men on the payroll. That industry keeps those ten men, but twenty people who would be manufacturing those machine will never have jobs.

  5. Governments are really bad at providing replacement equipment, so machinery gets more and more worn out. And since the government also tends to not police itself, no one inspects or condemns shoddy equipment. Whistleblowers are persecuted and silenced, and government-friendly media won't report on these issues anyway. This leads to injuries and deaths that the taxpayer must cover.

This is one of a thousands small cuts that will lead Chile down the path of Venezuela.