The pitchforks are here (with Cesar Hidalgo)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2019

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In nations around the world, people are protesting economic inequality and taking to the streets in political frustration. We said it here first: The pitchforks are coming. This week, Cesar Hidalgo joins Nick and Paul to discuss the unrest in Chile and explain how his political organizing app is helping protestors prioritize the policies they want government to address. The texture piece is courtesy of Gustavo de la Piedra, a listener from Santiago, Chile. The news clips are sourced from the news station France 24. Cesar Hidalgo is a Chilean-Spanish physicist, author, and entrepreneur. He currently holds an ANITI (Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute) Chair at the University of Toulouse, an Honorary Professorship at the University of Manchester, and a Visiting Professorship at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. From 2010 to 2019, Hidalgo led MIT’s Collective Learning group. He is known for the creation of the field of Economic Complexity, which uses disaggregate data and network methods to explain and predict economic development dynamics, for his work on the creation of data visualization and distribution systems, and for advancing ideas on the use of Artificial Intelligence in democracy. Twitter: @cesifoti Further reading: The pitchforks are coming... for us plutocrats: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014 ‘Chile Woke Up’: Dictatorship’s Legacy of Inequality Triggers Mass Protests: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/world/americas/chile-protests.html Global protests share themes of economic anger and political hopelessness: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/10/25/global-wave-protests-share-themes-economic-anger-political-hopelessness/ Chile announces $5.5 billion economic recovery plan as protests bite: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/03/chile-announces-5point5-billion-economic-recovery-plan.html

Transcript

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0:00.0	My Twitter feed lit up in the last month from of all places Chile.
0:07.6	Are these the pitchforks that Nick was warning us about?
0:10.6	I think so, you know, because in a society in which people now are better prepared and better educated, they also expect something better. And at the moment, you know, many people are not getting that. There's a lot of anger that is based on that tension that
0:24.0	people are better prepared than before but they're getting less.
0:28.6	From the offices of Civic Ventures in downtown Seattle, this is Pitch Fork Economics with
0:38.3	Nick Hanauer, where we explore everything you wished you'd learn in Econ 101. Ola pitchfork listeners, this is Gustavo from Santiago.
0:55.0	The pitchforks have come to Chile.
0:59.0	Every day for the past month, the Placea Italia has been overrun with hundreds of thousands of
1:04.6	demonstrators who have come to protest a deeply unequal society. It turns
1:09.7	out that the government favored a small elite in lieu of the people for far too long and the country
1:16.1	decided it had enough.
1:20.7	Citizens have been protesting, due to, among other things,
1:24.0	low wages, mismanagement of public funds,
1:28.0	increased cost of living,
1:30.0	health care problems and perceived abuse of citizens pension plans, not to mention
1:36.3	enormous income inequality.
1:39.3	Since the beginning of the protests, more,500 people have been wounded and 20 killed in violent
1:46.5	clashes including at least five killed by live ammunition.
1:50.5	The riots left a lot of destruction and ashes in their wake, not only the capital
1:57.0	Santiago, but in many cities. Luckily, it was relatively short-lived. Only a month or so, which is very brief compared to demonstrations that have taken place in other countries, some of which are quelled with military force, continue for years or never succeed.
2:17.3	The government has given in to many of the demands of the people, and we are emerging
2:22.0	from this a better country.
	...

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