1:
"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."
2:
"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."
3:
"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."
4:
"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."
5:
"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.".
6:
"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."
7:
"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."
8:
"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."
9:
"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."
10:
"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."
11:
"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."
12:
"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."
13:
"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."
14:
"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."
15:
"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."
16:
"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."
17:
"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."
18:
"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."
19:
"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."
20:
"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.
I was hoping he'd start by telling Klaus to kill himself, but he went a more positive way and was basically appealing to the rich non-socialists in the room; and gave everyone else an economics lecture.
Bruh I gave him the benefit of the doubt right up until he waved the Israeli flag, said he wants to dollarize argentina, and said he wished he could be Jewish.
Now he's in front of the WEF like a good puppet but I guess people are so hopeful they are blind to what that implies. He won't save argentina. Just like DeSantis or any of these other "electable" goons we are spoon fed by a corrupt political class to keep us entangled in their system. Look goy, only 2 more weeks and trump/milei/vivek will cross the Rubicon and save us.
It's pretty obvious he is to anyone paying attention. He might not realize it but the elite will use him to buy up assets at a cheap price. It's a model for foreigners to pillage domestic assets. Nothing he said is wrong from a pure theoretical perspective but one inherent flaw of ancapitalism is that not all humans are equal and freedom of capital movement given not free movement of labor means pure free market is NOT the best system for most people. The elite in charge don't need an economics lesson. They know how it works. They're purposely using their money to assume more wealth and power.
Well it's true, but the purpose of government is to ensure a fair playing field. While buying up assets might seem nefarious - under a well maintained libertarian system - any business that doesn't work to compete to provide goods and services will fail.
What he will find happens, if he is successful at what he does, is that a lot of businesses won't do business there, because their success hinges on getting sweet deals with the government.
Why was Amazon successful? The government exempts all its tax as a US-headquartered company. Why was AT&T successful? The government literally signed a contract mandating it as a monopoly. Why was any crown or state-owned enterprise successful? Because they get the government to regulate their competition away.
He will discover that the worlds biggest players can't succeed there, if he does his job correctly, and none of them will want to play ball. They'll send their lobbyists to fight for sweet deals and tax breaks - and when they get none, they'll simply go to a country that does give them one.
Nowadays, the biggest world players are all cheating - the most successful ones are the ones who are best at it.
I'm speaking mainly to the fact that corporations will want the cheapest labor possible. The way to get that is increase the labor supply. Bringing in cheap labor is often what corporations do and in a "true libertarian" system as you call it, there's nothing wrong with unlimited immigrants. The more immigrants that come in the more Argentina's culture suffers and the people in Argentina lose because the benefits of the economic growth are going to the rich capitalists and the immigrant labor not the Argentinians. Then the corporations will use the immigrants to change the politics around to get government to give them the tax breaks and subsidies they want. Voila, there goes anything he worked for.
I'm speaking mainly to the fact that corporations will want the cheapest labor possible. The way to get that is increase the labor supply.
It's a better idea to buy labour abroad. The US was the first to do that efficiently, then the labour in the country specialized in finance and technology. They're still the richest country in the world. Buying labour from others isn't "outsourcing jobs", it actually helps countries you buy the labour from, and it helps you becuase of comparative advantage.
Immigration is different, but similar, all it does is grow the labour force in your own country. It is important not to let immigrants create cultural enclaves in the country - Canada is learning that lesson hardcore.
While buying up assets might seem nefarious - under a well maintained libertarian system - any business that doesn't work to compete to provide goods and services will fail.
What does that have to do with global reality? We live in a manipulated economic system where foreign powers can just print currency to give to their BlackRocks to buy out whatever country they need to influence.
Milei in Davos 2024: Summary in 20 quotes
1: "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."
2: "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."
3: "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."
4: "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."
5: "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.".
6: "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."
7: "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."
8: "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."
9: "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."
10: "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."
11: "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."
12: "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."
13: "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."
14: "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."
15: "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."
16: "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."
17: "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."
18: "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."
19: "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."
20: "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!"
I was hoping he'd start by telling Klaus to kill himself, but he went a more positive way and was basically appealing to the rich non-socialists in the room; and gave everyone else an economics lecture.
The fact he is a platformed speaker at the WEF is proof enough that he's a plant.
If this guy's a plant, give me an army of plants.
We’ve become so jaded and distrustful that we don’t give anyone the benefit of the doubt.
Bruh I gave him the benefit of the doubt right up until he waved the Israeli flag, said he wants to dollarize argentina, and said he wished he could be Jewish.
Now he's in front of the WEF like a good puppet but I guess people are so hopeful they are blind to what that implies. He won't save argentina. Just like DeSantis or any of these other "electable" goons we are spoon fed by a corrupt political class to keep us entangled in their system. Look goy, only 2 more weeks and trump/milei/vivek will cross the Rubicon and save us.
It's pretty obvious he is to anyone paying attention. He might not realize it but the elite will use him to buy up assets at a cheap price. It's a model for foreigners to pillage domestic assets. Nothing he said is wrong from a pure theoretical perspective but one inherent flaw of ancapitalism is that not all humans are equal and freedom of capital movement given not free movement of labor means pure free market is NOT the best system for most people. The elite in charge don't need an economics lesson. They know how it works. They're purposely using their money to assume more wealth and power.
Well it's true, but the purpose of government is to ensure a fair playing field. While buying up assets might seem nefarious - under a well maintained libertarian system - any business that doesn't work to compete to provide goods and services will fail.
What he will find happens, if he is successful at what he does, is that a lot of businesses won't do business there, because their success hinges on getting sweet deals with the government.
Why was Amazon successful? The government exempts all its tax as a US-headquartered company. Why was AT&T successful? The government literally signed a contract mandating it as a monopoly. Why was any crown or state-owned enterprise successful? Because they get the government to regulate their competition away.
He will discover that the worlds biggest players can't succeed there, if he does his job correctly, and none of them will want to play ball. They'll send their lobbyists to fight for sweet deals and tax breaks - and when they get none, they'll simply go to a country that does give them one.
Nowadays, the biggest world players are all cheating - the most successful ones are the ones who are best at it.
I'm speaking mainly to the fact that corporations will want the cheapest labor possible. The way to get that is increase the labor supply. Bringing in cheap labor is often what corporations do and in a "true libertarian" system as you call it, there's nothing wrong with unlimited immigrants. The more immigrants that come in the more Argentina's culture suffers and the people in Argentina lose because the benefits of the economic growth are going to the rich capitalists and the immigrant labor not the Argentinians. Then the corporations will use the immigrants to change the politics around to get government to give them the tax breaks and subsidies they want. Voila, there goes anything he worked for.
It's a better idea to buy labour abroad. The US was the first to do that efficiently, then the labour in the country specialized in finance and technology. They're still the richest country in the world. Buying labour from others isn't "outsourcing jobs", it actually helps countries you buy the labour from, and it helps you becuase of comparative advantage.
Immigration is different, but similar, all it does is grow the labour force in your own country. It is important not to let immigrants create cultural enclaves in the country - Canada is learning that lesson hardcore.
See, I would argue both those things are bad.
What does that have to do with global reality? We live in a manipulated economic system where foreign powers can just print currency to give to their BlackRocks to buy out whatever country they need to influence.
It doesn't because there are no such systems. I never claimed so.
Yep! You can't have a free market when you have porous borders or overseas central banks can pump fiat into your market to buy everything up.