"At its crudest, the Chicago programme (put into effect in 1970s Chile) was class vengeance. It reversed the creep towards a more egalitarian country that had been occurring under Allende and Frei. The Chilean rich were restored to their traditional position of dominance over everyone else. More ambitiously, the increased likelihood of poverty, unemployment and insecurity for the majority of the population under Pinochet was intended to change their politics: people without work were less likely to join trade unions; people suddenly abandoned by the state were more likely, it was thought, to become entrepreneurial in outlook; people struggling to make ends meet were more likely, in general, to put themselves first. This logic, in slightly diluted form, would be thoroughly absorbed by Margaret Thatcher."
Andy Beckett, "Pinochet in Piccadilly".
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