Argentine President Javier Milei delivered an address fiercely condemning socialism at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, rejecting the “radical feminist” and “environmental” agendas fueled by socialism as well.
Milei urged world leaders to embrace capitalism as an alternative.
Milei, a libertarian economist, explained in a roughly 20-minute speech how socialism ultimately leads to poverty, how the state “is not the solution,” but rather “the problem itself,” and how leftism has co-opted Western government institutions to further its agendas. Wednesday’s speech was Milei’s first international address since taking office in December.
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“I am here today to tell you that the West is in danger. It is in danger because those who are supposed to uphold the values of the West find themselves co-opted by a worldview that inexorably leads to socialism, and consequently, to poverty,” Milei said in the opening of his speech.
The Argentine president lamented that world leaders have abandoned the ideas of freedom, embracing instead several versions of leftism which he categorized as being versions of the same ideology of “collectivism.”
Without naming specific cases, Milei explained that some had embraced such leftist ideas out of a desire to help others while others had done so to try to “belong” to a privileged caste.”
“We are here to tell you that collectivist experiments are never the solution to the problems that afflict the citizens of the world but, on the contrary, they are their cause,” Milei said. “Believe me, there is no one better than us Argentines to bear witness to these two issues.”
Milei continued by recounting how Argentina, after having become a world power in 1860, had seen itself become impoverished over the past 100 years by embracing collectivist ideas.
“They say that capitalism is bad because it is individualistic and that collectivism is good because it is altruistic, and consequently they strive for ‘social justice.’ Milei said. “But this concept, which in the first world has become fashionable in the last decade, has been a constant in my country’s political discourse for more than 80 years.”
He continued:
The problem is that social justice is not only not fair, but also does not contribute to the general welfare. On the contrary, it is an intrinsically unjust idea, because it is violent. It is unjust because the state is financed by taxes and taxes are levied coercively — or can any of us choose not to pay taxes? Which means that the state is financed through coercion, and the greater the tax burden, the greater the coercion.”
Milei continued his address by stating that the world is at its best today thanks to capitalism.
“There has never been, in all of human history, a time of greater prosperity than the one we live in today,” Milei said. “The world today is freer, richer, more peaceful, and more prosperous than at any other time in our history.”
Milei reiterated his opening warning that the West is in danger, asserting that the political and economic establishments in countries that are supposed to defend free market values, private property, and other libertarian ideas are instead “opening the doors to socialism” and potentially condemning their peoples to “poverty, misery, and stagnation.”
“Because it must never be forgotten that socialism is always and everywhere an impoverishing phenomenon that failed in all the countries where it was tried,” Milei said. “It was an economic failure. It was a social failure. It was a cultural failure. It also took the lives of 150 million human beings.”
He explained:
The essential problem of the West today is that we must not only confront those who, even after the fall of the [Berlin] wall and the overwhelming empirical evidence, continue to strive for impoverishing socialism, but also our own leaders, thinkers and academics who, under a mistaken theoretical framework, undermine the foundations of the system that has given us the greatest expansion of wealth and prosperity in our history.
Milei also condemned socialism for fueling a “ridiculous fight between men and women” through feminist movements.
“Libertarianism already establishes equality between the sexes, we all have the same rights, rights granted by the Creator,” Milei said.
“The only thing that this agenda of radical feminism has resulted in is greater intervention by the State to hinder economic growth, giving work to bureaucrats who did not contribute anything to society, whether in the format of the Ministry of Women or in international organizations dedicated to promoting this agenda,” he continued.
Milei also criticized socialism for sparking the fight of “man against nature” through climate change activism and organizations.
“They [socialists] maintain that human beings damage the planet and that it must be protected at all costs, even going so far as to advocate for population control mechanisms or the bloody agenda of abortion,” he added. “These harmful ideas have strongly permeated society.”
Milei explained that the left was able to achieve its goals “thanks to the appropriation of the media, culture, universities and international organizations. This last case is the most serious because they have influence on political decisions.”
The Argentine president continued by extending an invitation to other countries to embrace his ideals, noting that Argentina now “very well knows” how impoverishing the socialist system is.
“Since we decided to abandon the model of freedom that had made us rich, we have been trapped in a downward spiral where we are poorer every day,” Milei said.
Milei concluded by issuing a message to businessmen — both those attending the WEF summit in Davos, and those elsewhere — to not let themselves be intimidated by the state, denouncing the state not as the solution, but as the “problem.”
“Do not let yourselves be intimidated, do not surrender to a political class that only wants to remain in power,” Milei said. “You are social benefactors, you are heroes, you are the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity that we have ever experienced. Let no one tell you that your ambition is immoral.”
“You are the true protagonists of this story and know that from today you have Argentina as an unconditional ally,” he continued.
Milei concluded his speech with his now widely famous catchphrase: “¡Viva la libertad, carajo!” which roughly translates to “Long live liberty, damn it!”
WATCH: Libertarian? Populist? What Argentina’s New Chainsaw-Wielding President Javier Milei Believes
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Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
