Newly elected president of Argentina Javier Milei gave a speech in Davos yesterday. His basic argument was that the western world was in danger because leaders and governments were being lured away from the path of capitalism and success and toward the path of collectivism and failure.
Since he was elected last November, he’s been a source of fascination for the right and revulsion for the left. He’s been compared to Trump, perhaps because he made his living on television as a economist and commentator before running for office. But Donald Trump never gave a speech like this, laying out in detail the case for capitalism and against socialism.
If you look at a graph of the evolution of economic growth throughout the history of humanity, you would see a hockey stick graph, an exponential function that remained constant for 90% of the time and which was exponentially triggered starting in the 19th century…
…throughout the whole period between the year zero and the year 1800, the per capita GDP growth rate remains stable at around 0.02% annually. So almost no growth. Starting in the 19th century with the Industrial Revolution, the compound annual growth rate was 0.66%. And at that rate, in order to double per capita GDP, you would need some 107 years.
Now, if you look at the period between the year 1900 and the year 1950, the growth rate accelerated to 1.66% a year. So you no longer need 107 years to double per capita GDP – but 66. And if you take the period between 1950 and the year 2000, you will see that the growth rate was 2.1%, which would mean that in only 33 years we could double the world’s per capita GDP…
…when you look at per capita GDP since the year 1800 until today, what you will see is that after the Industrial Revolution, global per capita GDP multiplied by over 15 times, which meant a boom in growth that lifted 90% of the global population out of poverty…
Thanks to free trade capitalism, the world is now living its best moment. Never in all of mankind or humanity’s history has there been a time of more prosperity than today. This is true for all. The world of today has more freedom, is rich, more peaceful and prosperous. This is particularly true for countries that have more economic freedom and respect the property rights of individuals.
In addition to praising the success of capitalism, Milei also argued that socialism is an impoverishing force that holds humanity back.
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.
The essential problem of the West today is not just that we need to come to grips with those who, even after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the overwhelming empirical evidence, continue to advocate for impoverishing socialism.
At this point Milei argues against social interventions including feminism and the “abortion agenda.” He then returns to his argument against socialism by saying that it’s no longer necessary for the state to control the means of production because it can control everything through regulation. He closed his speech with an appeal directly to business people and entrepreneurs not to give in to the demands of the collectivists.
Do not be intimidated 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 are 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 wellbeing.
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 and unconditional ally.
I guess we’ll see how all of this plays out. Milei has to work within a constitutional system with a National Congress that still made up of a about 40% Peronist opposition members who will oppose his agenda, not to mention neighboring socialists who no doubt want him to fail.
Here’s video of Melei’s entire speech. He is speaking in Spanish of course but this clip includes an English translation.