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by derefr 4588 days ago
Chile will probably stop being third-world soon enough, though (I heard something about startup accelerators popping up there?)

There should be a term for "third-world country that's probably going to stay third-world for the forseeable future, excepting a revolutionary change of government." Maybe... dystopia? Argentina is a dystopia.
3 comments
nico 4588 days ago
Checkout http://startupchile.org they've made a lot of noise. There are quite a few cool (and successful) companies that have come out of there. My two favorites: Padlet (padlet.com) and Admetricks (admetricks.com). Padlet was also in YC and Imagine K-12 (after StartupChile)
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gametheoretic 4588 days ago
USA and allies: 1st-world; Soviets and allies: 2nd-world; all others: 3rd-world.
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aortega 4588 days ago
>Chile will probably stop being third-world soon enough

Sorry, I don't think so. Chile is doing good nowadays but basically their only export is copper. Copper is a semi-precious metal right now and thats why that country suddenly has so much wealth, but the difference between rich and poor is abysmal and their economy is tied to the price a single non-renewable resource.

Compared to Chile, Argentina still has a huge tech industry capable of exporting value-added products like cars.

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nationcrafting 4588 days ago
Chile is in the top-10 freest countries in the world right now, alongside Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore and other economic successes. Taxes are low, and there are huge incentives for people to start their own businesses. You can register a new business in 3 days, and registering trademarks is one of simplest processes in the world. This is in very sharp contrast to Argentina.

Yes, copper is selling very well, and it takes up a large proportion of the country's exports, but you are mistaken to think that this is the driving cause of the country's increase in wealth over the last 20 years.

The increase in wealth comes from the fact that incentives now exist for people to create wealth. Where wealth is created, there is more wealth. It's the same principle we have seen working throughout history.

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aortega 4588 days ago
Check out this graphic http://atlas.media.mit.edu/explore/tree_map/export/chl/all/s...
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