Javier Milei to the WEF: "You're all a bunch of parasites -- long live freedom, dammit!"

 

Javier Milei's speech overnight (translated) to Klaus Schwab's World Economic Forum. 

"This is actually wild to listen to. It sounds like a libertarian

podcast but its the main stage at the bloody WEF!"

NB: Presentation starts at 4:00, speech starts at 5:45

Argentine president Javier Milei went to the WEF's event in Davos, and told them they are a bunch of parasites.

And they deserved it.

But he had something infinitely more important to say: 

that the western world is in danger, and it's in danger because those who are supposed to defend the values of the west are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism, and thereby to poverty....

Leaders of the western world have abandoned the model of freedom ... We're here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world .... the key to prosperity is freedom.

Yesterday, Milei said he wanted "to plant the ideas of freedom in a forum that is contaminated by the 2030 socialist agenda." Today, he did just that — and more.

A fuller summary below of his speech, courtesy of @MileiExplains --  but first, a quick overview:

Today I am here to tell you that the western world is in danger, and it's in danger because those who are supposed to defend the values of the west are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism, and thereby to poverty.

Unfortunately, in recent decades, motivated by some well meaning individuals willing to help others, and others motivated by the desire to belong to a privileged class, the main leaders of the western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism.

"We are here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world, rather they are the root cause.

The problem with neoclassical (economists) is the model they love so much does not match reality, so they attribute their own mistakes to the supposed market failure, rather than reviewing the premises of their model.

On the pretext of the supposed market failures, regulations are introduced, which only create distortions in the price system, preventing economic calculation, and therefore, also prevent savings, investment, and growth.

Not even supposedly libertarian economists understand what the market is, because if they did understand it, they would quickly see that it's impossible for something alone the lines of market failure to exist.

Talking about market failure is an oxymoron, there are no market failures, if transaction are voluntary the only context where it can be a market failure is coercion, and the only one that is able to coerce is the state.

Faced with the theoretical demonstration that state intervention is harmful, and the empirical evidence that it has failed, the solution proposed by the collectivists is not greater freedom but rather greater regulation. Greater regulation which creates a downwards spiral until we are all poor, and the life of all of us depend on a bureaucrat sitting somewhere in a luxury office.

Whenever you want to correct a supposed market failure, inexorably, as a result of not knowing what the market is, or as a result of having fallen in love with a failed model, you are opening up the doors to socialism and condemning people to poverty.

Given the dismal failure of collectivist models, and the undeniable advances in the free world, socialists were lead to change their agenda. They left behind the class struggle based on the economic system, and replaced it with other supposed social conflicts, which are just as harmful to life as a community, and to economic growth.

Today's states don't need to directly control the means of production to control every aspect of the life of individuals. With tools like printing money, debt, subsidies, control of the interest rate, price controls, and regulations to correct the so called market failures, they can control the lives and fates of millions of individuals.

They say that capitalism is evil because it's individualistic and that collectivism is good because it's altruistic, of course with the money of others.

 Those who promote social justice, they advocate the idea that the whole economy is a pie that can be shared in better ways, but that pie is not a fixed given, it's wealth that get generated in what Israel Kirzner for instance calls a Market Discovery Process.

 If the state punishes the capitalists when they are successful, and gets in the way of the (Market) Discovery Process, they will destroy their incentives and the consequence is that they will produce less, and the pie will be smaller, and this will harm society as a whole.

Collectivism, by inhibiting the (Market) Discovery Process and hindering the appropriation of discoveries, ends up binding the hands of entrepreneurs and preventing them to provide better goods and services at a better price.

Thanks to free-enterprise capitalism, the world is now living its best moment, never in all of mankind's or humanity's history there has been a time of more prosperity than today. Today's world is more free, more rich, more peaceful, and more prosperous than in any other time of human history. And this is particularly true for those countries that respect economic freedom and the property rights of individuals.

The capitalist, the successful entrepreneur, is a social benefactor, who far from appropriating the wealth of others, contributes to the general well-being of all. Ultimately, a successful entrepreneur is a hero.

Libertarianism is the unrestricted respect for the project of life of others, based on the non-aggression principle, in defense of the right to life, to liberty, and to property. With its fundamental institutions being: Private property, markets free from state intervention, free competition, the division of labor, and social cooperation. Where you can only be successful by serving others with goods of better quality at a best price.

The impoverishment produced by collectivism is no fantasy, nor it is fatalism, it's a reality that we in Argentina have known very well for at least 100 years. We have lived through it, and we are here to warn you about what can happen if the countries in the western world -that became rich through the model of freedom-, stay on this road to serfdom.

We come here today to invite other countries in the western world to return to the path of prosperity. Economic freedom, limited government, and the unrestricted respect for private property, are essential elements for economic growth.

In concluding, I would like to leave a message for all entrepreneurs and business people here, and for those who are not here in person but are following from around the world: 

• Do not be intimidated either by the political caste nor by parasites who live off the state. 
• Do not surrender yourself to a political class that only wants to perpetuate itself in power and keep their privileges. 
• You are social benefactors, you are heroes, you are the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we have ever seen. 
• Let no one tell you that your ambition is immoral. If you make money, it's because you offer a better product at the best price, thereby contributing to the general well-being. 
• Do not yield to the advance of the state. The state is not the solution, the state is the problem itself. 
• You are the true protagonists of this story. 
• And rest assured that starting today, you can count on Argentina as an unconditional ally. 

Long Live Freedom, Dammit!

Watch at the end. The audience response was something like: "Was that real?!"

Philip Bagus, The leading economist in the Spanish-speaking world of the Austrian economics school summed up Milei's speech this way:

And by the way, he didn't fly there by private jet. He went cattle class. 

And he paid his own way.

[Hat tipsAlex Tabarrok, Mauricio Ríos García, agustina vergara cid, Ryan Bourne, Milei Explains, The Vigilant Fox, Creative Deduction, DutchLibertarian]