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In a fiery address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Argentine President Javier Milei delivered an anti-socialist speech warning about the dangers facing the Western world and underscored the importance of embracing capitalist ideals for prosperity. In his first international trip since taking office, Milei covered a range of topics spanning socialism, free markets and feminism.
Excerpted from Milei’s Jan. 17 speech at the World Economic Forum:
Today I’m here to tell you that the Western world is in danger. And it is in danger because those who are supposed to have to defend the values of the West are co-opted by a vision of the world that inexorably leads to socialism, and thereby to poverty.
Unfortunately, in recent decades, the main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom for different versions of what we call collectivism. Some have been motivated by well-meaning individuals who are willing to help others, and others have been motivated by the wish to belong to a privileged caste.
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 is in a better place than us, Argentines, to testify to these two points.
Thirty-five years after we adopted the model of freedom, back in 1860, we became a leading world power. And when we embraced collectivism over the course of the last 100 years, we saw how our citizens started to become systematically impoverished, and we 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 demonstrates 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.
