Posted on 02/24/2025 7:42:36 AM PST by John Semmens
In November of 2023, Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina. His campaign promised a free-market policy to revive the economy. During the campaign 108 economists signed a letter predicting this approach of "laissez-faire economics and significant reductions in government spending, are fraught with risks."
Since he took office on December 10, 2023 he reduced government spending by 5%, public work programs were put on hold, welfare was slashed, subsidies were eliminated, government-owned companies were privatized, regulations were cut, taxes were simplified and reduced, the number of government agencies was reduced from 18 to 9, a job freeze was implemented on federal positions, and tens of thousands of public employees were fired.
A year later, inflation has dropped from 300% per year to 2.4%, the economy has gone from recession to a 4% annual growth rate, and foreign investment in the country has increased. David Henderson, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, explained that the 108 economists who predicted disaster "have a poor understanding of how markets work and how governments undermine efficiency and fairness."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) warned that "Trump's efforts to imitate Milei's actions here won't work. There's not a single Democrat in the House who will support any of the cuts DOGE wants to make in any of the government agencies they have attacked. We've already seen the courts ordering the payments to be resumed and the personnel discharged to be reinstated. The American people are demonstrating in the streets against Trump's policies. It's only a matter of time before Trump will have to admit defeat in his insane attempt to reduce the size and scope of the government's role in guiding our economy, our culture, and our lives."
Free markets work for everyone except those on the government dole.
Homeless. It was never that big of a problem when they were bums.
Housing. How you gonna convince the fence-sitters the market wasn’t allowed to work? Local codes have nothing to do with the feds. Perhaps stopping those big solar farms and subsidies could free up capital indirectly for these things but no one will pit 2 and 2 together.
Solar farms and subsidies are a dumb idea anyway, regardless of if that money goes to help the homeless.
I’m not suggesting it at all. It’s the bigness of the government. Not keeping the main thing the main thing.
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