The thin reed upon which Henninger rests his contention is “the Center Rock drill bit”, developed by a privately owned company in Pennsylvania, which was used to drill through the rock to the miners. The presumption is that only the profit motive could have yielded such technology.
The obvious question is, if capitalism is responsible for rescuing the Chilean miners, what economic system was responsible for leaving them trapped deep underground and initially given up for dead in the first place?
Or for that matter, what was the system that drove 31 Chilean miners to their deaths last year and produced more than 12,000 recorded mine fatalities worldwide?
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While the Journal and the Post proclaim “free market capitalism” and “entrepreneurship” as the central elements in the rescue of the miners, both conveniently ignore that the operation was directed and largely financed by Chile’s state-owned copper mining enterprise, Codelco, created when the country’s Socialist Party President Salvador Allende nationalized privately held companies in 1971. And the key advice given in keeping the miners alive and healthy during their long ordeal came from the US government space agency, NASA.
Even more important in the survival of the miners was the behavior of the miners themselves, which was characterized by a powerful solidarity and collectivism that stands in stark contrast and opposition to the dog-eat-dog individualism of the capitalist free market.
The equal distribution of starvation rations that kept them alive during the 17 days before the first drill reached them was not merely forced upon them. Since their rescue, they have pledged to continue this method, sharing anything that they gain from books, etc., equally.
There is no mystery as to the role played by capitalism in the Chilean mine disaster as far as the miners themselves are concerned.
“People say that we’re heroes, and no, no were not heroes, we’re victims,” one of the miners, Franklin Lobos told the Chilean daily El Mercurio. “We fought for our lives, nothing more, because we have families. We are victims of the businessmen who don’t invest in safety…victims of the businessmen who earn millions and don’t think about the suffering of poor people.”
In the case of the San JosĂ© mine, this assessment is indisputable. The facility, whose record is typical of Chile’s privatized medium-sized mining operations, has been plagued for years by a series of fatal and maiming accidents, with the government largely looking the other way as the owners reaped hefty profits from super-exploitation.
“San JosĂ© is a nightmare,” another miner said to the media. “It is dangerous; I know it, everybody knows it. There is only one motto: productivity.”
In the immediate aftermath of the mine disaster last August, the miners attempted to escape through the ventilation shaft but discovered to their horror that the ladders required by government safety codes were missing.
Part of Chile’s embrace of “entrepreneurship” and “free market capitalism” has been its severe weakening of regulations on workplace safety. The government employs just 16 inspectors to supervise more than 4,000 mines scattered across the country. Chile is one of the few countries in the world that has refused to sign the International Labor Organization treaty on mine safety and health.
