Monday, August 22, 2016

“Chileans Ripped Off”

Hundreds of thousands of Chileans took to the streets throughout the country on Sunday, seeking to increase pressure on the government to throw out Chile’s private pension system in favour of one that would provide better benefits.

Under the current system, which was started in the 1980s during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, six private pension funds, known as AFPs, manage $160bn (£122bn) in assets. Opponents of Chile’s private pension system say it forces workers to give their earnings to for-profit funds that do not ensure a dignified old age for all Chileans. Protesters say some 10 million people who joined have now been left with very low retirement incomes - less than minimum wage in many cases, far less than the 70% of final salary originally intended.

The Chilean pension fund system has been praised by pro- free market politicians and economists across the world.

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