Published January 23, 2024
The speech Argentinian President Javier Milei delivered at this year’s World Economic Forum — which ended with a stirring “Long live Freedom, dammit!” — has produced conflicting interpretations.
One popular conservative Twitter account praised him for having “called out the Davos elites to their faces” by standing against socialism.
President Milei just went to the WEF and called out the Davos elites to their faces
His full speech (English):
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 17, 2024
Left-wing commentator Krystal Ball, on the other hand, accused him of “sucking up to elites” by assuring billionaires that they’re the good guys. (RELATED: ‘Long Live Freedom, Dammit!’: Argentinian President Milei Barnstorms Davos With Speech Blasting Socialism)
Which is it? Well, both.
There are two sides to Davos: business and government. Milei praised one and rebuked the other, calling the business leaders in attendance “heroes” and urging them to “not be intimidated either by the political caste or by parasites who live off the state.” But it’s not as simple as business-good-government-bad. Both are capable of oppression.
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SOURCE: www.dailycaller.com
RELATED: Milei gives the world a lesson on freedom
Argentina’s newly sworn-in President Javier Milei speaks outside the Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Published January 23, 2024
It isn’t often that a speech on free market economics at the World Economic Forum goes viral. But that’s exactly what’s happened over the last week following an address by Argentine President Javier Milei to attendees in Davos, Switzerland.
Milei shocked the world with his overwhelming electoral victory late last year. Milei’s free market, very-limited-government message resonated in the South American nation of Argentina, which has been in a state of economic crisis for many decades now thanks to the socialist governments which have ruled it.
Milei vowed to shake up the status quo, slash the bloated government put in place over the years and deregulate vast areas of the economy.
Milei’s aggressive rhetoric against socialists, collectivists and what he calls the “political caste” in Argentina has confused many news outlets into thinking he’s merely another right-wing populist like Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. But he’s clearly distinctive, as evidenced by his remarks in Davos.
“Today I’m here to tell you that the Western world is in danger. And it is in danger because those who are supposed to have 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,” he began his remarks. “Unfortunately, in recent decades, the main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism.”
He continued, “We’re 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.”
Milei gave the audience a much-needed lesson in the history of the world to back up his point. From the year zero through the 19th century, global per capita GDP was stagnant. Only in the last two centuries, and especially in the last century, has the potential of humanity been unleashed to the betterment of the world.
“We should remember that by the year 1800, about 95% of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. And that figure dropped to 5% by the year 2020, prior to the pandemic. The conclusion is obvious,” he said. “Far from being the cause of our problems, free trade capitalism as an economic system is the only instrument we have to end hunger, poverty and extreme poverty across our planet. The empirical evidence is unquestionable.”
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SOURCE: www.ocregister.com
RELATED: Javier Milei shares views on free markets, socialism and feminism at the World Economic Forum
Newly elected Argentinian leader believes ‘the West is in danger’
Argentina President Javier Milei speaks at the annual meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. Markus Schreiber, Associated Press
Published January 19, 2024
Argentina’s recently inaugurated president, Javier Milei, spoke at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, where he said, “The West is in danger.”
Milei said establishing free markets is the only morally sound way to reduce poverty, and “danger” comes from leaders who are “co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism and thereby to poverty.”
Milei said progressive ideologies like “radical feminism,” and climate activism lead to poverty. The president also critiqued neoclassical economic theory and claimed market failures do not happen naturally.
In an interview last year with The Economist, Milei said he began studying economics as a 10-year-old when Argentina went into hyperinflation. Since then, he has earned two master’s degrees in economics, published over 50 academic papers, led the economics division of an Argentine think tank and served in Argentina’s Congress, per the Deseret News.
Milei began his speech at the World Economic Forum by talking about the impacts free markets have had on the world from “year zero” to the present.
The impact of free markets on the world
Milei said free markets have lifted societies. He spoke about how economic well-being improved significantly after the introduction of free markets.
Countries operating under free markets “are 12 times richer than those that are repressed,” Milei said, adding, “The lowest percentile in free countries is better off than 90% of the population in repressed countries.”
Argentina adopted a free market system in 1860 and “became a leading world power” in 35 years, he said. But after rising as a world power, Milei said Argentine leaders and citizens “embraced collectivism” in the 1920s, and their global economic rank has dropped significantly since.
Milei said, “No one is in a better place than us, Argentines,” to warn countries of what happens when leaders use “collectivist experiments” to solve societal issues.
Milei said social justice is ‘intrinsically unfair’ and ‘violent’
Milei asked his audience why academia, political entities and economic theorists “demonize an economic system that has not only lifted 90% of the world’s population out of extreme poverty but has continued to do this faster and faster?”
Opposition to capitalism involves claims the system is unfair, promotes inequality and is overly individualistic, he said. On the other hand, people believe “collectivism is good because it’s altruistic toward others.”
Milei challenged this view of collectivism, saying, “It should never be forgotten that socialism is always and everywhere an impoverishing phenomenon that has failed in all countries where it’s been tried out.”
“It’s been a failure economically, socially, culturally, and it also murdered over 100 million human beings,” he said.
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SOURCE: www.deseret.com
