Argentina speaks to AI in CAPITALS
(This whole article is excerpts from the speech of the president Javier Milei of Argentina at Davos at the world ECONOMIC forum 2024)
(This story says that the west, particularly the USA, has been responsible for lifting the rest of the world out of poverty, BECAUSE of free market enterprise…and if a country wants to have a FREE MARKET ECONOMY, they have to walk the walk. Grateful that Argentina has figured this out. The USA also has figured it out and are going to walk the walk.)
The following are excerpts that I found very enlightening.
“Socialism leads to poverty and abandons the model of freedom, for “collectivism”. Collectivist do not solve problems, they create them. Collectivism causes poverty.
(Gross domestic product is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic health of a country or region.)
From the years 0 to 1800 for that period of time, global Gross domestic product, GDP, remained constant…economic growth…remained constant … a history of stagnation at .02 percent globally..almost no growth
1900 to 1950 the growth rate… of 1.66 percent taking only 66 years to double GDP.
1950 and 2000 the growth rate…of 2.1 percent taking only 33 years to double the worlds per capita GDP.
The trend is well alive.
From 2000 to 2023 the growth rate accelerated 3 percent a year to double worlds per capita GDP in just 23 years
per capita GDP from 1800 until today after industrial revolution… global GDP multiplied by over 15 times… creating a boom in economic growth, lifting 90 percent of global population out of poverty.
By the year 1800 about 95 percent of the worlds population lived in extreme poverty and that figure dropped to five percent by the year 2020, prior to the pandemic. As opposed to causing our problems the conclusion (free market capitalism) is obvious, and far from being the cause of our problems…
NOW WE TALK ABOUT CAPITALISM.
FREE TRADE CAPITALISM AS AN ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS THE ONLY INSTRUMENT WE HAVE TO END HUNGER, POVERTY AND EXTREME POVERTY ACROSS THE PLANET. THE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE IS UNQUESTIONABLE THEREFORE, SINCE THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT FREE ENTERPRISE CAPITALISM IS SUPERIOR IN PRODUCTIVE TERMS.
The left wing has attacked capitalism alleging matters of morality, saying, (that’s what its detractors are saying) its unjust., they say that capitalism is evil because it is individualistic and that collectivism is good because it is altruistic… social justice.
The problem is that social justice is not just and does not contribute to the general well being. Quite on the contrary it is an intrinsically unfair idea because it is violent. It’s unjust because the state is financed through tax, and taxes are collected, coercively …can anyone of us say they voluntarily pay taxes?
The state is financed through coercion and 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.
Its wealth is that which is generated in a market discovery process.
If the goods or services offered by a business are not wanted that business will fail unless they adapt to what the market is demanding. If they make a good quality product at an attractive price they will do well and produce more.
SO THE MARKET IS A DISCOVERY PROCESS WHERE THE CAPITALISTS WILL FIND THE RIGHT PATH AS THEY MOVE FORWARD.
But if the state punishes capitalists when they are successful and gets in the way of the discovery process they will destroy the incentives and the consequence is that capitalists will produce less and the pie will be smaller and this will harm society as a whole.
Collectivism (socialism) 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.
It should never be forgotten that Socialism is always and everywhere an impoverishing phenomena that has failed in all countries where it has been tried out. It failed economically, socially. culturally and murdered over a hundred million human beings.
THE MARKET IS NOT A MERE GRAPH DESCRIBING A CURVE OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND. THE MARKET IS A MECHANISM OF SOCIAL COOPERATION WHERE YOU VOLUNTARILY EXCHANGE OWNERSHIP RIGHTS.
Therefore based on this definition talking about a market failure is a 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 coerce generally is the state which holds a monopoly on violence. Consequently if someone considers that there is a market failure they should check to see if the state intervenes.
States do not need to directly control means of production in order to control every aspect the lives of individuals, with tools such as debt, printing money, subsidies, controlling the interest rate and price controls and regulations to correct the so called market failures. They can control the lives of millions and fates of individuals.
This is how we come to the point where by using different names or guises a great deal of the generally accepted political offers are collectivists variants whether they proclaim to be openly communist, fascists, Nazi, social democrats, national socialists, democrat Christians, progressives, populists, nationalists or globalists . There are no major differences… they all say that the state should steer all aspects of the lives of individuals.
For all business people who are here and for those who are not here in person do not be intimidated by political class or parasites who live off the state. Do not surrender to political class that only wants to stay power and retain privileges. You are social benefactors. You’re hero’s. You are the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we have ever seen . Let no one tell you that your ambition is immoral… if you make money it is 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. Argentina is an ally.
Filly’s response to Argentina president…thanks for this message at the world forum. I am confident that the American citizens do not want socialism and I am grateful that the entrepreneurs in the west, specifically the USA, will continue to lift global populations out of poverty, including helping Argentina, with a free market economy supported by a conservative president, like yourself, who will reverse the “poverty causing trend” of the current president Biden and Vice president Harris, towards socialism. Thank you.