In the cities of the rich world no woman is expected to wear a garment until it is wornout. (Men, unaccountably, tend to hold on to their clothes for years, but the industry is working on the problem.) The clothes industry would be in a pickle without a constant supply of clients dissatisfied with the contents of their wardrobes.
Privately, some right-wing leaders admit that Mr Lavin is an expendable stop-gap until the 2005 election, when they expect that a worn-out Concertacion will be easier to beat.
Says he: "Armchair professors and bureaucrats who sit behind desks pushing a pencil all day can work until age 68 without any serious difficulty, " but manual workers are too wornout by physical labor to stay on the job that long.