Reaction & Commentary
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 cast the main leaders of the western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism 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 better place than us argentines to testify to these two points when we adopted the model of Freedom back in 1860 in 35 years we
Became a leading world power and when we embrac collectivism over the course of the last 100 years we saw how our citizens started to become systematically impoverished and dropped to spot number 140 globally but before having the discussion it would first be important for us to take a look at the
Data that demonstrate why free enterprise capitalism is not just the only possible system to end World poverty but also that it’s the only morally desirable system to achieve this if we look at the history of economic progress we can see how between the year Zer and the year 1800 approximately
World per capita GDP practically remained constant throughout the whole reference period 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 the only exception to this history of stagnation was in the late 15th century with the discovery of the American continent but for this exception throughout the whole period between the year 0 and the year 1800 Global per capita GDP stagnated now it’s not just that
Capitalism brought about an explosion in wealth from the moment it was adopted as an economic system but also if you look at the data what you will see is that growth continues to accelerate throughout the whole period and throughout the whole period between the year Zer and the year 1900 the per
Capita GDP growth rate remained 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 66% and um 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% again the cagr which would mean that in only 33 years we could double the worlds per capita GDP this trend far from stopping remains well alive today if we take the period between the year 2000 and 2023 the growth rate again accelerated to 3% a
Year which means that we could double uh world per capita GDP in just 23 years that said when you look at per capita GDP since the year 1800 and 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 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
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 therefore since there is no doubt that free enterprise capitalism is Superior in productive
Terms the leftwing doxer has attacked capitalism alleging matters of morality saying uh that’s what the detectiv claim that it’s unjust 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 so they therefore advocate for social
Justice but this concept which in the developed world became fashionable in recent times in my country has been a constant in political discourse for over 80 years the problem is that social justice is not just and it doesn’t contribute either to the general well-being quite on the contrary it’s an
Intrinsically unfair idea because it’s violent it’s unjust because the state is financed through tax and taxes are collected coercively or can any one of us say that they voluntarily pay taxes which means that the state is financed through coercion and that the higher the tax burden the higher the coercion and
The lower the freedom those who promote social justice The Advocates start with the idea that the whole economy is a pie that can be shared differently but that pie is not a given it’s wealth that is generated in what Israel kisna for instance calls a market Discovery
Process if the goods or services offered by a business are not wanted the uh business will fail unless it adapts to what the market is demanding if they make a good quality product at an attractive price they would do well and produce more so the market is a discovery process in which the
Capitalist will find the right path as they move forward but if the state punish es capitalists when they’re successful and gets in the way of the discovery process they will destroy their incentives and the consequence is that they will produce less the pie will be smaller and this will harm society as
A whole collectivism by inhibiting these Discovery processes and hindering the appropriation of discoveries ends up binding the hands of entrepreneurs and prevents them from offering better goods and services at a better price so how come um Academia International organizations economic theory and politics demonize an economic system that has not only lifted
Out of extreme poverty 90% of the world’s population but has continued to do this faster and faster and this is morally Superior and just thanks to free trade capitalism um it is um to be seen that the world is now um living its best moment never in all of mankinds or human
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 is more peaceful and prosperous and this is particularly true for countries that have more freedom and have economic freedom and respect the uh property rights of individuals because
Countries that have more freedom are 12 times richer than those that are repressed and the lowest desile in terms of distribution in free countries are better off than % of the population of repressed countries and poverty is 25 times lower and uh extreme poverty is 50 times lower and citizens in free
Countries live 25% longer than citizens in repressed countries now what is it that we mean when we talk about libertarianism and let me quote the words of the greatest Authority on freedom in Argentina Professor Alberto Benz l Jr who says that libertarianism is the unrestricted respect for the life
Project of others based on the principle of non-aggression in defense of the right to life liberty and property its fundamental institutions being private property markets free from State intervention free competition the division of labor and social cooperation as part of which success is achieved only by serving others with
Goods of better quality or at a better price in other words capitalists successful business people are social benefactors who far from appropriating the wealth of others contribute to the general well-being ultimately a successful entrepreneur is a hero and this is the model that we are advocating for the Argentina of the
Future a model based on the fundamental principles of libertarianism the defense of Life of freedom and of property now if Enterprise capitalism and economic freedom have proven to be extraordinary instruments to end poverty in the world and we are now at the best time in the history of humanity it is
Worth asking why I say that the West is in danger and I say this precisely because in those of our countries that should defend the values of the free market private property and the other institutions of libertarianism sectors of the political and economic establishment some due to mistakes in their
Theoretical framework and others due to a Greed for power are undermining the foundation so libertarianism opening up the doors to socialism and potentially condemning us to Poverty misery and stagnation 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 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 but there’s also our own leaders thinkers and academics who relying on a misguided theoretical framework undermine the fundamentals of the system that has given us the greatest expansion of wealth and prosperity in our history the theoretical framework to which I refer is that of neoclassical
Economic theory which designs a set of instruments that unwillingly or without meaning to ends up um serving the intervention by the state socialism and social degradation the problem with neoc classical is that the model they fell in love with does not map reality so they put down their mistakes to supposed
Market failures rather than reviewing the premises of the model on the pretext of a supposed market failure regul are introduced which only create distortions in the price system um prevent economic calculus and therefore also prevent saving investment and growth this problem lies mainly in the fact that not even supposedly libertarian economists
Understand what the market is because if they did understand it would quickly be seen that it’s impossible for that to be something along the lines of market failures the market is not a graph describing a curve of supply and demand the market is a mechanism for social cooperation where you voluntarily
Exchange ownership rights therefore based on this definition talking about a market failure is an oxymoron there are no market failures if transactions are voluntary the only context in which there can be a market failure is if there is coercion and the only one that is able to coers
Generally is the state which holds a monopoly on violence consequently if someone considers that there is a market failure I would suggest that they check to see if the state intervention involved and if they find that that’s not the case I would suggest that they check again because obviously there’s a
Mistake market failures do not exist an example of these so-called market failures described by the classicals are the concentrated structures of the economy however without increasing returns to scale functions whose counterpart are the concentrated structures of the economy we couldn’t possibly explain economic growth since the year 1800 until today isn’t this interesting
Since the year 1800 onwards with population multiplying by eight or nine times per capita GDP grow by over 15 times so there are growing returns which took extreme poverty from 95% to 5% however the presence of growing returns um involves concentrated structures what we would call a monopoly
How how come then that’s something that has generated so much well-being for the neoclassical theory is a market failure neoclassical economists think outside of the box when the model fails you shouldn’t get angry with reality but rather with a model and change it the Dilemma face by the
Neoclassical model is that they say they wish to perfect the function of the market by attacking what they considered to be failes but in so doing they don’t just open up the doors to socialism but also go against economic growth an example regulating monopolies destroying their profits and destroying growing returns automatically
Would destroy economic growth in other words whenever you want to correct a supposed market failure inexa as a result of not knowing what the market is or as a result of having fallen in love with a failed model you are opening up the doors to socialism and condemning
People to Poverty however fac with the theoretical demonstration that state intervention is harmful and the empirical evidence that it has failed couldn’t have been otherwise the solution to be proposed by collectivists is not greater freedom but rather greater regulation which creates a downward spiral of spiral of regulations
Until we’re all poor and the life of all of us depends on a bureaucrat sitting in a luxury uh office 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 replace this with other supposed social conflicts which are just as harmful to Life as a community and to economic growth the first of these new battles was the ridiculous and unnatural fight between man and woman libertarianism already provides for equality U of the Sexes the Cornerstone of our Creed says that all
Humans are created equal that we all have the same unalienable rights granted by the Creator including life freedom and ownership all that this radical feminism agenda has led to is greater State intervention to hinder the economic process giving a job to bureaucrats who have not contributed anything to society
Examples um ministries of of women or International organizations devoted to promoting this agenda another conflict presented by socialists is that of humans against nature claiming that we human beings damage the planet which should be protected at all costs even going as far as advocating for population control mechanisms or the
Bloody um abortion agenda unfortunately these harmful ideas have taken a strong hold in our society neo-marxists have managed to co-op the common sense of the western world and this they have achieved by appropriating the uh media culture universities and also International organizations the latter case is the most serious one probably
Because these are institutions that have enormous influence on political and economic decisions of the countries that make up the multilateral organizations fortunately there’s more and more of us who are daring to make our voices heard because we see that if we don’t truly and decisively fight against these ideas
The only possible fate is for us to have increasing levels of state regulations socialism poverty and less freedom and therefore uh will be um having worse standards of living the West has unfortunately already started to go along this path I know to many it may sound ridiculous to suggest that the
West has turned to socialism but it’s only ridiculous if you only limit yourself to the traditional economic definition of socialism which says that it’s an economic system where the state owns the means of production this definition in my view should be updated in the light of current circumstances
Today states don’t need to directly control the means of production to control every aspect of the lives of individuals with tools such as printing money debt subsidies controlling 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 this is how we come to the point where by using different names or gues a good deal of the generally accepted political offers in most Western countries are collectivist variance whether they Proclaim to be openly communist fascists Nazis socialists social Democrats National socialists Democrat Christians or Christian democrats neoc
Canans uh Progressive populist nationalists or globalists at bottom there are no major differences they all say that the state should steer all aspects of the lives of individuals they all defend a model contrary to that one which led Humanity to the most spectacular progress in its history we
Have come here today to invite the rest of the countries in the Western World to get back on the path of prosperity economic freedom limited government government and um unlimited respect for private property are essential elements uh for economic growth and the impoverishment produced by collectivism
Is no fantasy no nor is it an inescapable fate but it’s a reality that we argentines know very well we have lived through this we have been through this because as I said earlier ever since we decided to abandon the model of Freedom that had made us rich we have
Been caught up in a downward spiral as part of which we are poorer and poorer day by day so this is something we have lived through and we are here to warn you about what could happen if the countries in the western world that became rich through the model of Freedom stay on
This path of servitude the case of Argentina is an 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 or educated or how many bars of gold you may have in the
Central bank if measures are adopted that hinder the free function of markets free competition free Price systems If You Hinder trade if you attack private property the only possible fate is poverty therefore in concluding I would like to leave a message for all business people here and
For those who are not here in person but are following from around the world do not be intimidated intimidated either by the political cast or by parasites who live off the state do not surrender to a political class that only wants to stay power and retain its privileges you are
Social benefactors you’re 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 sta unconditional Al thank you very much and Long Live Freedom damn it
