The Chilean Paradox of Malestar Amidst Prosperity: Measuring the Chilean Middle Class.

In 2019, Chile enjoyed high levels of economic freedom, high growth, high wealth by regional standards and a growing and solid middle class. Behind the numbers, the middle class felt insecure, and the country exploded over a small spark—first, there were five months of social unrest, then there was not one, but two constitutional conventions. In the end, the existing constitution prevailed. This paper examines the “Chilean paradox” of simultaneous high levels of income and middle-class dissatisfaction, by analyzing the Chilean middle class. While we can obviously and unfortunately not interview an aggregate such as the middle class, we propose several theories to explain the paradox—ranging from Director’s Law of middle-class redistribution to narrative manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]