Embarassing moment

I know this is a blog about economy and finance, but I've seen myself forced to write about an embarassing moment. Well, this is already really awkward, and I apologize. There's nothing I can do to not write about this, oh well. I'm sorry blogreaders, but I know you'll keep faithful to my blog. Ok, I'll start it up now. It was a random Wednesday morning. My English teacher walked into the classroom and told us to write a kind of essay about an embarassing moment of ours.In that moment I freaked out and I though of all of you people reading my blog. Well, it didn't take long for everyone else to begin writing their funny not so funny stories about the embarassing moments they had lived. Meanwhile I was feeling terrible bad and weird, because I failed to give my readers what they were expecting to read. Therefore I couldn't think of an embarassing moment of mine, I started asking myself why I couldn't think of something to write of, until I realized I was already living an embarassing moment! I was writing about an unralated topic on my finance blog and all my readers would be turned down and kind of mad at me. So that's an awkward embarassing moment. See you next time!

Education system in Chile

It's not unusual to be walking down the street and find several public schools on strike anymore. So it seems that the students will raise again to claim for their alleged "rights". However, there is a side of the story which is kept untold among the majority of people, probably due to the lack of knowledge to fully understand it. Therefore, I would like to speak for all those people against the student strikes and riots which are turning more violent than ever. First off, it's obvious that the current economic and social situation of the country is critic, mainly due to the income disparity between the richest part of the population and the poorest ones. This makes Chile look like a medieval fief with rigid and unchangeable social classes. That's the reason, the very fair reason why the people are sick and tired, so they're starting to say "it's enough" "stop". Notwithstanding that, the solution for income disparity to decrease for the purpose to reach a better education and thus possess a better academic and social level is not easy, and it's definitely a long but eventually fruitful process. Unfortunately many secondary and college students think that a free State run education would ensure the plurality and quality they are looking for. It's not hard to explain that the lack of incentives to make the school more efficient will make it fail to improve and thus give a better service. Besides, it would be against individual responsibilities from the children's parents to have the freedom to choose what educational place they want for their children, either a dogmatic, religious, linguistic, ethnic or other. Another disadvantage that goes evidently along with a State run education is the infernal bureaucracy which is generated because of the state run policies which in fact contribute to get in corruption. Having said that, the only possible way out is to understand the market. That means, the Government should do public propaganda to spread the knowledge of a free market economy, in which the people know their rights as consumers so they understand that they play a fundamental role in the economy, because they represent the "demand". This way will allow parents to have the freedom to choose the right school for their children and they will know it will be efficient and incorruptible(unless not at the dramatic levels of a State run education). On the other hand, Friedman was wrong when he said the market was able to totally regulate by itself, because that leads to a imminent self destruction, accordingly it's necessary to establish an institution whose job is to monitor the rights of consumers.

Tax avoidance in Chile

It's pretty common to be asked "boleta o factura" (bill and invoice respectively) when shopping in a Depot or Supermarket. At first sight you are not really concerned about it. It's perfectly fine and reasonable if you want to make a purchase for oneself to choose "boleta" and when the purchase is for your company you choose "factura". Then, you might be wondering what's this difference for. Why do they have different bills depending on who is getting the goods? The answer is simple not so simple. This is Chile's tax avoidance at its best, now you probably want to know what this means, and what are its effects on Chilean economy and its population. Everytime a company owner makes a purchase using the "factura" system to buy an item which will not be used for their company but for their personal use instead they are avoiding taxes. The negative effects of this process are a lot, and really dangerous. That's because taxes are destinated to help improve the State run institutions, such as the military forces (army, air force, navy) education and healthcare among many others. Most of this State owned services are used by the poorest population, nevertheless it affects the whole society anyway. That's the reason why you should be aware of this method and help prevent it, in case you get to see it.

Decriminalization of marijuana in Chile

After senator Fulvio Rossi declared to smoke marijuana one to two times a month a heavy debate was opened about the legality of drugs in Chile. I was really pleased to know this topic was being treated in the congress and even though I'm not a marijuana smoker and I'm not even interested in becoming one, I feel the need to remark the liberties we were supposed to be given at birth. Freedom is one of the most important values in Western societies and it must be respected as such. The prohibition of drugs becomes a serious issue for big cities, and its people. It helps to make ghettos appear and the police fails to prevail a State of Law due to the power of the big drug dealers. There's another situation I'd like to point out, the congress arbitrarily decides which drugs are legal and which are not, and I think that's really unfair. I mean, why is alcohol and tobacco still legal if they are the drugs which kill most people every year, and it's the number one cause of heart and lung related diseases in Chile. Milton Friedman stated that all drugs should be decriminalized due to an economic law which explains that as long as there are people willing to get either a good or a service, legally or illegally, there's always going to be supply. That means, that a regulation of marijuana will not reduce its use, it would only make it harder and more dangerous to get. This will only enrich dealers and make ghettos more criminal. Recent studies about countries which decriminalized marijuana prove that the consumption has not increased, it has in fact decreased. It's reasonable to conclude that out, because as marijuana is consumed in public places where everyone can see, people can actually see the disadvantages of smoking pot from a young age. Furthermore, prevention is also a better way to fight drug usage. On the other hand, I haven't explained why I used the word "decriminalization" instead of the so-called term "legalization" There's a huge difference between these two words. One could easily think they stand for the same thing though. Actually, it's not so. Legalization would mean the regulation of drug usage with laws regarding where, when, and how drug usage could take place. Decriminalization eliminates all laws and prohibits the state and law-enforcement officials from intervening in any drug usage-related activities or transactions, unless other laws apply.