Javier Milei Addresses World Economic Forum at Davos 2024 | FULL SPEECH

TRANSCRIPT: [Applause] Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen it'sfor me uhgreat great honor to welcome jaier M asyou know it's a freely elected presidentof uhArgentina and it's actually your firsttrip to a foreign country after you havebeen elected first congratulations foryour election and congratulations alsoto your sister who managed your umelection campaignI think you sometimes people would saywith more radical methods but youintroduce a new spirit toArgentina makingArgentina much more related to freeenterprise to entrepreneurialactivities also to bring Argentina backto the rule of law so we have a veryextraordinary person among us today andof course we are all eager uh to listento you and again a very cordial welcometo the world economic[Applause]forumgoodafternoon thank you verymuch today I'mhere to tell you that the Western worldis indanger and it is endangered becausethose who are supposed to have to defendthe values of the West are coopted by avision of the world that inexorablyleads to socialism and thereby toPovertyunfortunately in recentdecades motivated by some well-meaningindividuals willing to help others andothers motivated by the wish to belongto a privileged cast the main leaders ofthe western world have abandoned themodel of Freedom four different versionsof what we call collectivism we're hereto tell you that collectivistexperiments are never the solution tothe problems that afflict the citizensof the world rather they are the rootcause do believe me no one better placethan us argentines to testify to thesetwo points when we adopted the model ofFreedom back in 1860 in 35 years webecame a leading world power and when weEmbrace collect ISM over the course ofthe last 100 years we saw how ourcitizens started to becomesystematically impoverished and wedropped to spotnumber 140 globally but before havingthe discussion it would first beimportant for us to take a look at thedata that demonstrate why freeenterprise capitalism is not just theonly possible system to end Worldpoverty but also that it's the onlymorally desirable system to achieve thisif we look at the history of economicprogress we can see how between the yearZ and the year 1800approximately world per capita GDPpractically remained constant throughoutthe whole reference period if you lookat a graph of the evolution of economicgrowth throughout the history ofhumanity you would see a hockey stickgraph an exponential function thatremained constant for 90% of the timeand which was exponentially triggeredstarting in the 19th century the onlyexception to this history of stagnationwas in the late 15th century with thediscovery of the American continent butfor this exception throughout the wholeperiod between the year Z and the year1800 Global per capita GDPstagnated now it's not just thatcapitalism brought about an explosion inwealth from the moment it was adopted asan economic system but also if you lookat the data what you will see is thatgrowth continues to acceleratethroughout the whole period andthroughout the whole period between theyear Zer and the year 1800 the percapita GDP growth rate remained stableat around 0.02% annually so almost nogrowth starting in the 19th century withthe Industrial Revolution the compoundannual growth rate was 66% and uhat that rate in order to double percapita GDP you would need some 107 yearsnow if you look at the period betweenthe year 1900 and the year 1950 thegrowth rate accelerated to1.66% a year so you no longer need 107years to double per capita GDP but 66and if you take the period between 1950and the year 2000 you will see that thegrowth rate was 2.1% again the cagrwhich would mean that in only 30 3 yearswe could double the world's per capitaGDP this trend far from stopping remainswell alive today if we take the periodbetween the year 2000 and 2023 thegrowth rate again accelerated to 3% ayear which means that we could double aworld per capita GDP in just 23 yearsthat said when you look at per capitaGDP since the year 1800 and until todaywhat will see is that after theIndustrial Revolution Global per capitaGDP multiplied by over 15 times whichmeant a boom in growth that lifted 90%of the global population out of povertywe should remember that by the year 1800about 95% of the world's populationlived in extreme poverty and that figuredropped to 5% by the year 2020 prior tothe pandemic the conclusion is obviousfar from being the cause of our problemfree trade capitalism as an economicsystem is the only instrument we have toend Hunger poverty and extreme povertyacross our planet the empirical evidenceis unquestionable therefore since thereis no doubt that free enterprisecapitalism is Superior in productiveterms the leftwing doxer has attackedcapitalism alleging matters of moralitysaying uh that's what the detectivclaimed that it's unjust they say thatcapitalism is evil because it'sindividualistic and that collectivism isgood because it's altruistic of coursewith the money of others so theytherefore advocate for social justicebut this concept which in the developedworld became fashionable in recent timesin my country has been a constant inpolitical discourse for over 80 yearsthe problem is that social justice isnot just and it doesn't contributeeither to the general well being quiteon the contrary it's an intrinsicallyunfair idea because it's violent it'sunjust because the state is financedthrough tax and taxes are collectedcoercively or can any one of us say thatthey voluntarily pay taxes which meansthat the state is financed throughcoercion and that the higher the taxburden the higher the coercion and thelower the freedom those who promotesocial justice The Advocates start withthe idea that the uh whole economy is apie that can be shared differently butthat P is not a given it's wealth thatis generated in what Israel kisna forinstance calls a market Discoveryprocess if the goods or services offeredby a business are not wanted the uhbusiness will fail unless it adapts towhat the market is demanding if theymake a good quality product at anattractive price they would do well andproduce more so the market is aDiscovery process in which thecapitalist will find the right path asthey move forward but if the statepunishes capitalists when they'resuccessful and gets in the way of thediscovery process they will destroytheir incentives and the consequence isthat they will produce less the pie willbe smaller and this will harm society asa whole collectivism by inhibiting theseDiscovery processes and hindering theappropriation of discoveries ends upbinding the hands of entrepreneurs andprevents them from offering better goodsand services at a better price so howcome that um Academia Internationalorganizations economic theory and uhpolitics demonize an economic systemthat has not only lifted out of extremepoverty 90% of the world's populationbut has continued to do this faster andfaster and this is morally Superior andjust thanks to free trade capitalism umit is um to be seen that the world isnow um living its best moment never inall of Mankind's or Humanity's historyhas there been a time of more Prosperitythan today this is a true for all theworld of today has more freedom is richis more peaceful andprosperous and this is particularly truefor countries that have more freedom andhave economic freedom and respect the uhproperty rights of individuals becausecountries that have more freedom are 12times richer than those that arerepressed and the lowest desile in termsof distribution in free countries arebetter off than 90% of the population ofrepressed countries and poverty is 25times lower and uh extreme poverty is 50times lower and citizens in freecountries live 25% longer than citizensin repressed countries now what is itthat we mean when we talk aboutlibertarianism and let me quote thewords of the greatest Authority onfreedom in Argentina Professor AlbertoBenz l Jr who says that libertarianismis the unrestricted respect for the lifeproject of others based on the principleof non-aggression in defense of theright to life liberty andproperty its fundamental institutionsbeing private property markets free fromState intervention free competition thedivision of labor and socialcooperation as part of which success isachieved only by serving others withGoods of better quality or at a betterprice in other words capitalistssuccessful business people are socialbenefactors who far from appropriatingthe wealth of others contribute to thegeneral well-being ultimately asuccessful entrepreneur is a hero andthis is the model that we are advocatingfor the Argentina of the future a modelbased on the fundamental principles oflibertarianismthe defense of Life of freedom and ofproperty now if free enterprisecapitalism and economic freedom haveproven to be extraordinary instrumentsto end poverty in the world and we arenow at the best time in the history ofhumanity it is worth asking why I saythat the West is in danger and I saythis precisely because in those of ourcountries that should defend the valuesof the free market private property andthe other institutions of libertarianismsectors of the political and economicestablishment some due to mistakes intheir theoretical framework and othersdue to a Greed for power are underminingthe foundation so libertarianism openingup the doors to socialism andpotentially condemning us to Povertymisery and stagnation it should never beforgotten that socialism is always andeverywhere an impoverishing phenomenonthat has failed in all countries whereit's been tried out it's been a failureeconomically socially culturally and italso murdered over a 100 million humanbeings the essential problem the Westtoday is not just that we need to cometo grips with those who even after thefall of the Berlin wall and theoverwhelming empirical evidence continedto advocate for impoverishing socialismbut there's also our own leadersthinkers and academics who relying on amisguided theoretical framework undermind the fundamentals of the system thathas given us the greatest expansion ofwealth and prosperity in our history thetheoretical framework to which I referis that of neoclassical economic theorywhich designs a set of instruments thatunwillingly or without meaning to endsup um serving the intervention by thestate socialism and social degradationthe problem with neoclassic hold is thatthe model they fell in love with doesnot map reality so they put down theirmistakes to supposed market failuresrather than reviewing the premises ofthe model on the pretext of a supposedmarket failure regul are introducedwhich only create distortions in theprice system um prevent economiccalculous and therefore also preventsaving investment and growth thisproblem lies mainly in the fact that noteven supposedly libertarian economistsunderstand what the market is because ifthey did understandit would quickly be seen that it'simpossible for that to be somethingalong the lines of market failures themarket is not amere graph describing a curve of supplyand demand the market is a mechanism forsocial cooperation where you voluntarilyexchange ownership rights thereforebased on this definition talking about amarket failure is anoxymoron there are no market failures iftransactions are voluntary the onlycontext in which there can be a marketfailure is if there iscoercion and the only one that is ableto coers generally is the state whichholds a monopoly on violenceconsequently if someone considers thatthere is a market failure I wouldsuggest that they check to see if thestate intervention involved and if theyfind that that's not the case I wouldsuggest that they check again becauseobviouslythere's a mistake market failures do notexist an example of these so-calledmarket failures described by the neocclassicals are the concentratedstructures of the economyhoweverwithout increasing returns to scalefunctions whose counterpart are the uhconcentrated structures of the economywe couldn't possibly explain economicgrowth since the year1800 until today isn't thisinterestingsince the year1800onwards withpopulationmultiplying by eight or nine times percapita GDP grow by over 15 times sothere are growing returns which tookextreme poverty from 95% to5% however the presence of growingreturns um involves concentratedstructures what we would call a monopolyhow come then that's something that hasgenerated so muchwell-being for the neoclassical theoryis a market failure neoclassicaleconomists think outside of the box whenthe model fails you shouldn't get angrywith reality but rather with a model andchange itThe Dilemma faced by the neoc classicalmodel is that they say they wish toperfect the functioning of the market byattacking what they considered to befailes but in so doing they don't justopen up the doors to socialism but alsogo against economic growth an exampleregulatingmonopolies destroying their profits anddestroying growing returns automaticallywould destroy economic growth in otherwords whatever you want to correct asupposed market failure inexa as aresult of not knowing what the market isor as a result of having fallen in lovewith a failed model you are opening upthe doors to socialism and condemningpeople to Poverty however fa with thetheoretical demonstration that stateintervention is harmful and theempirical evidence that it has failedcouldn't have been otherwise thesolution to be proposed by collectivistsis not greater freedom but rathergreater regulation which creates adownward spiral of spiral of regulationsuntil we're all poorer and the life ofall of us depends on a bureaucratsitting in a luxury uh office given theDismal failure of collectivist modelsand the undeniable advances in the FreeWorld socialists were forced to changetheir agenda they left behind the classstruggle based on the economic systemand replace this with other supposedsocial conflicts which are just asharmful to Life as a community and toeconomic growth the first of these newbattles was the ridiculous and unnaturalfight between man andwoman libertarianism already providesfor equality U of the Sexes theCornerstone of our Creed says that allhumans are created equal that we allhave the same unalienable rights grantedby the Creator including life freedomandownership all that this radical feminismagenda has led to is greater Stateintervention to hinder the economicprocess giving a job to bureaucrats whohave not contributed anything to societyexamples um ministries of of women orInternational organizations devoted topromoting this agenda another conflictpresented by socialists is that ofhumans against nature claiming that wehuman beings damage the planet whichshould be protected at all costs evengoing as far as advocating forpopulation control mechanisms or thebloody um abortion agenda unfortunatelythese harmful ideas have taken a stronghold in our society neo-marxists havemanaged to co-opt the common sense ofthe western world and this they haveachieved by appropriating the uh mediaculture universities and alsoInternational organizations the lattercase is the most serious one probablybecause the these are institutions thathave enormous influence on political andeconomic decisions of the countries thatmake up the multilateral organizationsfortunately there's more and more of uswho are daring to make our voices heardbecause we see that if we don't trulyand decisively fight against these ideasthe only possible fate is for us to haveincreasing levels of state regulationssocialism poverty and less freedom andtherefore uh will be umworse standards of living the West hasunfortunately already started to goalong this path I know to many it maysound ridiculous to suggest that theWest has turned to socialism but it'sonlyridiculous if you only limit yourself tothe traditional economic definition ofsocialism which says that it's aneconomic system where the state owns themeans of production thisdefinition in my view should be updatedin the light of current circumstancestoday states don't need to directlycontrol the means of production tocontrol every aspect of the lives ofindividuals with tools such as printingmoney debtsubsidies controlling the interest rateprice controls and regulations tocorrect the so-called market failuresthey can control the lives and fates ofmillions of individuals this is how wecome to the point where by usingdifferent names orgues a good deal of the generallyaccepted political offers in mostWestern countries are collectivistvariant whether they Proclaim to beopenly a Communists fascists Nazissocialists socialDemocrats National socialists DemocratChristians or Christian democrats Neocanans uh Progressive populistnationalists or globalists at bottomthere are no major differences they allsay that the state should steer allaspects of the lives of individuals theyall defend a model contrary to that onewhich led Humanity to the mostspectacular progress in its history wehave come here today to invite the restof the countries in the Western World toget back on the path of prosperityeconomic freedom limited governmentgovernment and um unlimited respect forprivate property are essential Elfor economic growth and theimpoverishment produced by collectivismis no fantasy nor is it an inescapablefate but it's a reality that weargentines know very well we have livedthrough this we have been through thisbecause as I said earlier ever since wedecided to abandon the model of Freedomthat had made us rich we have beencaught up in a downward spiral as partof which we are poorer and poorer day byday so this is something we have havelived through and we are here to warnyou about what could happen if thecountries in the western world thatbecame Rich through the model of Freedomstay on this path of servitude the caseof Argentina is an empiricaldemonstration that no matter how richyou may be or how much you may have interms of Natural Resources or howskilled your population may be or oreducated or how many bars of gold youmay have in the central bank if measuresare adoped that hinder the freefunctioning of markets free competitionfree Price systems If You Hinder tradeif you attack private property the onlypossible fate ispovertytherefore inconcluding I would like to leave amessage for all business people here andfor those who are not here in person butare following from around the world donot be intimidated intimidated either bythe the political Cass or by parasiteswho live off the state do not surrenderto a political class that only wants tostay in power and retain its privilegesyou are social benefactors you're Heroesyou're the creators of the mostextraordinary period of prosperity we'veever seen let no one tell you that yourambition is immoral if you make moneyit's because you offer a better productat a better price thereby contributingto General wellbeing do not surrender tothe advance of the state the state isnot the solution the state is theproblem itself you are the trueprotagonists of this story and restassured that as from today Argentina isyour sta unconditional Ally thank youvery much and Long Live Freedom damn