Milei Is Defying Argentina's Powerful Labor Unions
President Javier Milei's adversaries are wealthy Argentines who have benefited from government largesse.
After enacting sweeping reforms in Argentina, President Javier Milei faced a major protest. Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets, hundreds of flights were grounded, and schools and businesses closed in protest of Milei's radical attempt to fix the troubled South American country.
Milei is a rarity; there aren't many self-described libertarian heads of state in history. To avert economic disaster in a country facing huge deficits and a 160 percent inflation rate (that has since spiked to over 211 percent), he told the country things would likely get worse before they could get better.
In his inaugural address on December 10, Milei acknowledged the daunting challenges ahead: "No government has received a worse inheritance than the one we are receiving….We neither seek nor desire the difficult decisions that must be made in the coming weeks. But unfortunately, we have no choice."
Ten days into his term, Milei issued a "mega-decree" of more than 300 executive measures. He abolished national rent control, which had caused a 75 percent drop in available apartments in Buenos Aires in 2022 and 2023. He repealed price controls, slashed subsidies, and fired more than 5,000 government employees. He allowed direct competition with Argentina's government-owned airline, which he plans to privatize. And he defied the country's powerful labor unions.
Milei's transformative agenda has encountered resistance, notably from Argentina's largest labor union, the General Confederation of Labor, which represents about one out of every five Argentine workers. The union called for a nationwide strike on January 24, bringing portions of Buenos Aires to a standstill.
Their main reason for protesting? Milei had issued an order ending the automatic withholding of union dues, leaving workers free to opt out of union membership. He also banned government workers in sectors such as health care and education from striking. While his measures were temporarily suspended by a court ruling, unions are making a show of force so that Milei's agenda doesn't make it through the National Congress.
Despite the economic challenges and opposition, Milei remains resolute in his pursuit of a freer, less regulated, and less debt-ridden Argentina. Addressing world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum in January, he said the Argentina of the future will be based on libertarian principles.
"If measures are adopted that hinder the free functioning of markets, free competition, free price systems, if you hinder trade, if you attack private property, the only possible fate is poverty," Milei said.
Despite the union's opposition, Milei's main political adversaries aren't Argentina's workers. In fact, Milei is calling for increased welfare in the short term to ease the pain for the working class during this transition to a new economic model. As Argentine political economist Marcos Falcone tells Reason, Milei's actual adversaries are wealthy Argentines who have benefited from government largesse.
"Milei is going against crony capitalism, because he is basically trying to kill the businessmen that have lived off of government support," Falcone says. "We need to move forward. And the people need to be able to profit—not just companies because of regulations and privileges."
In his speech at the Davos conference, Milei encouraged business owners not to be intimidated "by the political class or by the parasites who live off the state."
"You are heroes. You are the creators of the most extraordinary period of prosperity we've ever seen," Milei continued. "Do not surrender to the advance of the state. The state is not the solution. The state is the problem itself."
Milei faces a thicket of regulations to cut and massive political resistance in Argentina. It won't be easy to carry out his nation's direly needed economic transformation. We'll have to wait and see if he picked the right chainsaw to cut through the challenges ahead.
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“In his speech at the Davos conference, Milei encouraged business owners not to be intimidated “by the political class or by the parasites who live off the state.”
Milei’s speech to the Davos aristocracy was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Speaking truth to power in the actual sense.
If you haven’t watched it yet, do so soon.
He’s a goddamn beacon of light for every one with a libertarian hope.
And a neo-Nazi, insurrectionist, and/or kulak for everyone else.
Even worse. He’s a populist!
To masked sockpuppet infiltraitors, shooting cops and girls at a women’s clinic and breaking windows in DC are “libertarian” hopes. Do you now see where the Alabama Anschluss Caucus has dragged the LP?
If I were a young man, would I seriously look at immigrating to Argentina? Maybe. Things are looking up there. We shall see.
All I know is that if I were a rich man I would spend all day biddiy buddy bum
If the democrats get their way here, then nowhere will be safe. They will see anyone like Milei ousted. Better to get rid of our democrats than flee from them.
American rights > democrat lives
When I was a young man I did. I moved back.
Note to foreign readers: The “looking up” reference is to South Park, a tv show, describing the the view seen by a Turd Sandwich floating in Giant Douche water.
Technically speeking the protest was tens of thousands of union leeches.
Not a single human took place in the protest
The union called for a nationwide strike on January 24,
If a union member doesn’t show up to work would anyone notice?
The rest of the staff might get more done.
He also banned government workers in sectors such as health care and education from striking. ……. Milei faces a thicket of regulations to cut
Same as the Jimmy Carter model – Civil Service reform and deregulation of huge swaths of the economy (even air lines). Now he needs to appoint a Volcker like Carter did to control runaway inflation.
Good solid start.
He should execute all the pedophiles too. Pedophiles like you.
Exactly what a redneck Neo-Nazi would say.
Fuck off, Klansman. Your black-hating, Jew-baiting ass is pretty much the last one here who should be calling anyone a Nazi. You’re not even “neo”, you’re the original variety.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qg_63XvD8BXfa-cRNJBwX726SignAnowpOUlCLjd25QKgXMtPgX2Rm4WEtqJtS4XQ5UVPHPSNevbBZa2Jx_vxrkDlHxUY1h8BExCM9SdHTev9NNeeMEwQ2Ebpp0YJTOQM_wAYxxD
Well thats weird. No dip under Carter. This liberal reformation project for Carter continues to spread lies.
By the way… claiming Carter was reducing federal labor after creating the DoE and DoEd is amusing
Turd lies.
That’s what UK KKKonservatives mumbled when Hitler became Reichskanzler. Copyright laws saw to it that only Goebbels-approved translations of Mein Kampf appeared outside the Reich. “Mon Combat” in France was a slender, nay, emaciated volume, and FDR (who could read German) reported that the “English” version was censored, Bowdlerized and gutted of all important content–this while Bund-licking conservatives struggled to bring back Prohibition and sang praise of Christian National Socialism.
Hitler purged the German government of all Jews. Ronald Reagan in 1987 purged the ‘Murrican gubmint of all pot-smokers and acidheads while a Texas congressman pushed prohibitionism to absolutely ban and invade other countries to force THEM to ban everything not in the gin-and-cigarette category. It was a Texas Congressman that wrote the the 18th Amendment; another Texas Congressman, Jim Wright, on September 11 sponsored the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which triggered the 1987 Crash. Solid shot, solid start.
In May 1987 Reagan demanded drug testing and elevated prohibitionist Ann Wrobleski (like 1929 prosecutor Mabel Willebrandt) to USA dope ambassador to the Vienna Conference to ban everything but gin and cigarettes. LA cops and DEA promptly seized another metric tonne of cocaine and dragooned the Bahamian and Colombian governments into helping bust people. Paul Volcker seen the clowds gathering and resigned, so Reagan called clueless third party Alan Greenspan to man the Fed while the DEA’s Austrian Anschluss toppled economies like dominoes. By November the economy was a trainwreck just like in 1929. Surely everyone saw that in the papers?
‘”If measures are adopted that hinder the free functioning of markets, free competition, free price systems, if you hinder trade, if you attack private property, the only possible fate is poverty,” Milei said.’
WEF: “The sooner the better.”
Can we get someone like this as President here?
Americans prefer $1400 handouts.
Hey buddy. Whats the average student loan forgiveness up to now?
Also…
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/01/the-us-national-debt-is-rising-by-1-trillion-about-every-100-days.html
That’s why they keep voting for Democrats who wrote the Cares Act and the ARPA bill and the etc, etc, etc, etc, ?free?-pony bills.
Never stopping to realize that their ‘armed-theft’ doesn’t make sh*t so they’re just walking off a cliff into their own criminal-mentality demise (dog-eat-dog).
I could use the free pony. Pony steaks for a year.
A nation full of criminal minds. Once upon a time the people wanted Liberty and Justice over gangland theft.
turd, the ass-clown of the commentariat, lies; it’s all he ever does. turd is a kiddie diddler, and a pathological liar, entirely too stupid to remember which lies he posted even minutes ago, and also too stupid to understand we all know he’s a liar.
If anything he posts isn’t a lie, it’s totally accidental.
turd lies; it’s what he does. turd is a TDS-addled lying pile of lefty shit.
If things got as bad as in Argentina, yes. And then we’d get someone like this to get us halfway back to where we are now.
See California. Highest cash equivalent federal welfare transfers in the U.S. Highest poverty rates adjusted for COL. A state run by government unions. $20/hr minimum wage. High six figure government union pension- CALPERS. Federal taxpayer funded Trains to nowhere. Flash mobs destroying what is left of small, medium businesses in the state. Violent felons now misdemeanors. Terrorist state supporting activists, real Jew hating Nazis.
Newsom is the federal, politically motivated greaseball that turns the U.S. into pre Milei Argentina.
Kleptocracy whores, (not “we”), already did. Trump, Bolsonaro and MyLai are all cassava flour outta the same bag. All three want to enslave females into involuntary labor, bust, rob and shoot hippies and brown people over non-toxic enzymes and plant leaves (NOT gin and cigarettes), and wreck the economy trying to achieve these aggressions. Instead of wearing fake mercantilist greasepaint they now come on like sows in lipstick wearing fake libertarian nun habits. Its their way of shedding earned hatred onto LP candidates.
Today’s news in Argentina is hymns, processions and rejoicing over Long Dong and Palito repealing 14A so Trump can force states to put him on the ballot to end 13A, and a contest to see which county is overrun with fewer rats (photo of running dog with rat in jaws). This is STRAIGHT outta Orwell’s 1984!
Never mind. 2 minutes too late.
Can we get someone like this as President here?
We need runaway inflation first. Give Biden another few years.
Trump’s Debt Now Totals An Estimated $1.3 Billion (Oct 2021)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2021/10/07/trumps-debt-now-totals-an-estimated-13-billion/?sh=1d1881445753
Donnie’s debt service has gone up and he cannot come up with the $450 million to appeal his recent legal losses.
Will Donnie hit up Vlad for a loan?
Almost certainly yes. What will Putin demand in return?
Celebrating political persecution, we don’t call you a fascist for nothing.
Higher interest rates and lower office tower valuations + a $445 million debt call will force Donnie into a classic liquidity crunch.
The Con Man may be playing his last grift this year and that is a good thing for America.
#MakeAmericaGreat
You being excited for raping small children is good for America. The entire Soros family should be executed as well.
It’s sad when being able to call someone a facist pedofile is not hyperbole
Not many places would allow a racist, corporatist pedophile to post here and Reason Magazine isn’t one of them. The “2” shows that he’s a ban-evading piece of shit. One of the few people Reason has ever banned.
Imagine typing this while claiming not to be a fascist lol.
turd, the TDS-addled ass-clown of the commentariat, lies; it’s all he ever does. turd is a kiddie diddler, and a pathological liar, entirely too stupid to remember which lies he posted even minutes ago, and also too stupid to understand we all know he’s a liar.
If anything he posts isn’t a lie, it’s totally accidental.
turd lies; it’s what he does. turd is a lying pile of lefty shit.
When you pull the Donny-Vlad bromance out of your spank bank, are they naked?
turd, the ass-clown of the commentariat, lies; it’s all he ever does. turd is a kiddie diddler, and a pathological liar, entirely too stupid to remember which lies he posted even minutes ago, and also too stupid to understand we all know he’s a liar.
If anything he posts isn’t a lie, it’s totally accidental.
turd lies; it’s what he does. turd is a lying pile of lefty shit.
What do you think Hank and Artie gotta say about this?
The commenter are getting too libritarian, and calling us out on our bs state ism. Quick charge a subscription for commenting
Makes it easier for ENB to dox commenters when she gets Calle don’t for not making sandwiches in a timely manner.
Wow. This place is a ghost town.
Positive pieces on Milei and Massie don’t irritate the commentariat like the regular hagiographies of Jared Polis and mostly-peaceful cultural enrichers.
Plus it’s likely that Reason’s…… excuse me ‘Reason +’, recent move to a paywall is likely driving peole away from this dying left wing rag.
“Milei is going against crony capitalism, because he is basically trying to kill the businessmen that have lived off of government support,” Falcone says.
NOT crony capitalism.
IS crony socialism.
“crony capitalism” = Leftard-Indoctrination exhibit #584357204
Crony corporatism.
= Government Fascism.
The leftard indoctrination is all about trying to put ‘capital’ or ‘corporate’ in where it creates an oxymoron. The same way they try and pretend ‘armed-theft’ is just charity.
“Crony capitalism” is a term of art. It were better called “capitalist cronyism” as money flows to capitalists who are cronies. Remember, successful capitalists often are opposed to capitalism because they no longer benefit from competition. They’re pulling the ladder up after them,
If Milei can successfully rejuvenate the entrepreneurial class, good on him.
“…“Crony capitalism” is a term of art. It were better called “capitalist cronyism”…”
To TDS-addled, obnoxiously arrogant piles of shit, this is considered ‘clever observation’ rather than the irrelevancy which it so obviously is.
‘Former President Trumps adversaries are wealthy politically-connected Americans who have benefited from government largesse. Counted in the billions.’
Fixed.
Is it any wonder they’ve weaponized the DOJ and the judicial branch? This does not presume any organized, coordinated effort to bankrupt and jail Trump, simply the group pile-on when you get nut cases like Willis, to pick just one of many.
‘Hey, guys, we got him THIS TIME!!!’
The Argentine Trump…. makes you wonder why Reason is cheerleading for him.
Those who know only Fat Freddy Spanish, otra cerveza, can get less filtered news from the Buenos Aires Herald online. This issue says: “Donald Trump: ‘I love Milei because he loves me!’
BY BUENOS AIRES HERALD
A week after Trump and Milei met, the far-right US Republican frontrunner nominee praised Milei during a campaign speech.” PLUS, Argentina’s Trump closed down the local PBS and just announced he wants to criminalize monetary emission.
Are you a pederast?
You are a steaming pile of TDS-addled shit. Fuck off and die.
Why? Are you going down SQRLSY’s path and looking for a snack?
I’ll fuck off if you commit suicide. Best thing for you really. Your comments are going nowhere.
As a matter of fact; That isn’t an oxymoron.
Ya know like trying to call a steaming pile of lefty shit a beautiful rose.
That’s all that Sevo ever posts. He appears to have a non-clinical mental disorder. I muted him a while ago.
Consider the source. To Trumpanzee sockpuppets, name-calling from safe, Reason-provided anonymity is the height of intellectual debate. And the other one, helping marxistas sell royalist slaveholding colonial mercantilism by copying Ayn Rand’s error, is not much higher on the evolutionary ladder.
Both of you just go away. This ridiculous personal feud has nothing to do with the topic above.
Good lord, I never thought I’d say something positive about Reason’s plan to require payment for comments but if it makes the trolls and spammers go away, maybe it will be worth it…
You mean see us shot. Your team will have to capture me alive to hang me.
Good luck with that.
Yeah, but you actually have to argue why someone’s post is a steaming pile of lefty shit. Sevo never does. He just continues his monomaniacal posting.
I have a strong feeling these types will pony up.