Is there any stuffier event in the world today than the World Economic Forum in Davos? New York Sun columnist Anthony Grant called the gathering "irremediably dull — think Antony Blinken with a side order of Tom Friedman."
Ugh. Perish the thought.
But before you hit your snooze button and go back to sleep, you might want to take a listen to what Argentina's new president, Javier Milei, had to say to the global elites and super-rich in attendance. "The West" Milei told the stunned audience, "is in danger."
"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 defended the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inevitably leads to socialism and thereby to poverty," Milei said.
Milei's words dropped like hammer blows on the assembled elites. I doubt whether anyone had ever stood before them and told them off.
"Unfortunately, in recent decades, motivated by some well-meaning individuals willing to help others, and others motivated by the wish to belong to a privileged caste, 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."
"Do believe me, no one [is] in a better place than us Argentines to testify to these two points," he added.
Milei calls himself an "anarcho-capitalist," which is political doubletalk. He's an interesting mix of right and left, which is understandable given that Argentina's economy is a basket case and he'd have a revolution on his hands if he didn't continue some of the welfare policies that are responsible for Argentina's economic stupor.
Conservative commentator Paul Szypula compared Milei to former President Trump.
"Javier Milei drops truth bombs just like Trump. Gotta love it and what it means at the very least for the people of Argentina," he wrote.
In his first month in office, Milei has proposed about 1,000 reforms to reduce regulation and privatize state-owned companies, while also devaluing the peso currency against the dollar and lifting price controls he inherited from his leftist predecessors.
Milei has maintained strong support since taking office on Dec. 10 as Argentines so far embrace austerity measures to tackle inflation. Milei and his top advisers traveled to Switzerland on a commercial flight, which the president said saved the country thousands of dollars.
Some of the speech could have been delivered by a Republican running for any office in America.
Given the dismal failure of collectivist models and the undeniable advances in the free world, socialists were forced to change their agenda. They left behind the class struggle based on the economic system, and replaced this with other supposed social conflicts, which are just as harmful to life as a community and to economic growth.
Milei mentioned the war between men and women, environmental extremism, and "the empirical demonstration that no matter how rich you may be or how much you may have in terms of natural resources, or how skilled your population may be or educated, or how many bars of gold you may have in the central bank, if measures are adopted that hinder the free functioning of markets, free competition, free price systems, if you hinder trade, if you attack private property, the only possible fate is poverty...
“The conclusion is obvious,” Milei added. “Far from being the cause of our problems, free-business capitalism as an economic system is the only tool that we have to end hunger, poverty.”
The entire speech needs to be read to be believed. At this moment in history, for the president of a country fabulously wealthy in resources but desperately poor in political capital to come and tell the elites that what ails the world is them and their wrong-headed ideology is astonishing.
Milei saved the best for last.
In concluding, I would like to leave a message for all businesspeople 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 or by parasites who live off the state. Do not surrender to a political class that only wants to stay in power and retain its privileges.
You are social benefactors. You are heroes. You're the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we've 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 a better price, thereby contributing to general well-being.
Do not surrender 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 as from today, Argentina is your staunch, unconditional ally.
“Long live freedom, dammit,” and he left the stage.
“LONG LIVE FREEDOM DAMN IT.”
— Te𝕏asLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) January 18, 2024
—Javier Milei, WEF 2024
I’ve now listened to this twice. The first time was a dubbed version and not as easy to understand compared to this AI translation—which sounds just like him talking, accent & all.
pic.twitter.com/S8RrHG1jI7
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