Friedman Facts.com

In the wake of Chile’s 8.8 earthquake, Bret Stephens writes in the Wall Street Journal about how “Milton Friedman gave Chileans the intellectual wherewithal first to survive the quake, and now to build their lives anew.”

It is a short and sweet piece addressing the Pinochet regime, the Chicago boys, and Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” myth. Stephens suggests that the implementation of Friedman’s economic ideas in Chile led to better building codes and fewer fatalities than January’s 7.0 Haitian earthquake:

In “The Shock Doctrine,” Ms. Klein titles one of her sub-chapters “The Myth of the Chilean Miracle.” In her reading, the only thing Friedman and the Chicago Boys accomplished was to “hoover wealth up to the top and shock much of the middle class out of existence.” Actual Chileans of all classes—living in the aftermath of an actual shock—may take a different view of Friedman, who helped give them the wherewithal first to survive the quake, and now to build their lives anew.