Libertarianism is Spent

Libertarianism is Spent 

 

Milei has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. But in recent months, things have begun to go wrong for him.

 

“The economy has not advanced sufficiently, inflation has not been brought down in any significant way, and wages have been practically frozen,” said Tokatlian, a professor of international relations at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires.

 

The government faced a cryptocurrency debacle after the president promoted an obscure token called $Libra, which soared in value following his endorsement before collapsing dramatically, prompting dozens of criminal complaints alleging fraud.

 

Milei also vetoed bills that would have increased pensions and disability benefits, but last week, the national congress took a step not seen in more than 20 years and overturned the president’s veto.

 

Signs of Milei’s growing unpopularity were already evident when, nearly two weeks ago, he was pelted with stones by demonstrators while campaigning for Sunday’s election.

 

-             Argentinians deliver electoral blow to Milei’s scandal-rocked government – Guardian

 

 

Gregg Wall (9-27-2025)

 

This week, on as The World Burns…. Team Trump rides to the rescue of failed far-right, chainsaw wielding, libertarian lunatic, Javier Milei, President of Argentina.  Basically, negotiating swap lines in the billions of dollars, essentially a US taxpayer funded bailout, orchestrated by Treasury Secretary Bessent and Trump.  Predictably, another right-wing extremist and the libertarian economic model went down in flames in Argentina.   But Argentina isn’t the only place…. Neoliberals – of the more staid, “centrist” variety - have been flaming out throughout the West, often replaced by far-right extremists who promise the moon and the stars, only to get caught up in corruption scandals, broken promises, lies, transferring wealth to the rich, while demanding austerity of the public. (JMH has been writing about this global phenomenon, the death of neoliberalism, aka libertarianism, for some time.)  And often running up debt and deficits in the process.  Demonstrating for all the world to see, once again, what an abject failure libertarianism, crony-capitalism, supply-side, and trickle down actually are, as if the world needed another lesson.  Again, it’s the debt and deficits that are the telltale signs of failure, the flashing red light.  Because libertarians don’t need the government, remember?  Government is bad, the private sector is almighty. So why is the entire system constantly being bailed out by the state, why do billionaires & crooks constantly look to profit off the taxpayer with crony privatization schemes, while central bank printing presses burn & smoke? 

 

Except that’s not true.  Turns out the rich and powerful love socialism, love privatized profits and socialized bailouts, losses, and corporate welfare.  Whether it’s Milei in Argentina, Trump in America, Dani Smith in Alberta, Canada, or coming soon to the UK, Nigel Farage… we see a familiar/similar pattern:  promises of massive libertarian reforms, demonization of the left and often immigrants, promises to bring skyrocketing inflation under control, promises to unleash the almighty private sector - to bring jobs and opportunity home, and bring down and take a chainsaw to the state.   What happens in reality, once in power?  Promises are ignored, government becomes a spoils system to reward wealthy backers and insiders, corruption and more corruption, debt and deficits climb, government actually grows with crony insider deals and privatization scams.  Children, families, labour and the public suffer as the economy grows more predatory, as libertarianism fails.  Coming as no surprise to anyone, monopoly, market based solutions, privatization are all revealed as a fraud, repeatedly.  The transfer of public assets & public services to powerful friends, another scam… crony government, spoils government at its very worst.

 

And the peasants, like myself… well, we get austerity, corruption, six years of soaring prices and corporate greed, and in the States, endless wars & violence.  We get gaslighting and lies from grandstanding libertarians.  We get fuzzy metrics, like GDP and growth.  Metrics that do precious little to reveal just how poorly libertarians in positions of power are actually performing.  But most galling of all, we get unimaginable hubris and arrogance from political leadership and their billionaire & multinational backers.  Until Milei needs a bailout, Dani Smith is caught in her latest lie and coverup, or Trump does a face plant on affordability, endless wars and violence… as debt and deficits soar to bailout far-right politicians, cronies, and libertarianism.

 

Turns out, bootstraps and rugged individualism never applies to the billionaires, bankers, Silicon Valley whiz kids, err adults… never applies to well-connected libertarians like Milei.  Instead, despite an endless litany of scandals & fraud, they often double down, never admit they are wrong, bulldoze ahead, take a chainsaw to the public.  That’s right, when it comes to addressing debt and deficits under libertarian governments, it’s the public and public services that must pay the price… never the kleptocracy.  The libertarian solution is cut gov, cut services, take away medical services from the elderly & the indigent…. Never raise taxes on the greedy, myopic billionaire class, monopolies, and utilities swimming in profits, who rip-off the public every day.

 

 

 

 

 

At some point, the public needs to acknowledge the obvious, especially MAGA type extremists… no, big daddy Trump, chainsaw madman Milei, and relentlessly on the offensive Dani Smith are clearly not looking out for your interests, nor are psychopath billionaire donors and sponsors.  In fact, they mean you harm; they are waging class warfare.  They want you destitute, struggling, they don’t want your kids or the next generation well educated.  They want you destitute, deep in hock, with a pile of unpaid medical bills and no safety net of any kind… preferably with your checking account overdrawn and your credit card maxed.  They really, really don’t like you.  They want the public at each other’s throats.  All the better to distract you and direct your attention to immigrants, the other, minorities, First Nations, trans athletes, in the case of Dani Smith, focused on Ottawa as the source of all that is evil.  Even though Carney (aka PM private equity) and Dani Smith’s interests couldn’t possibly be more aligned.  You know, the rich and libertarian politicians want you focused on the bogeyman of the day… they don’t want you focused on the criminal class of billionaires and monopolies.

 

At the end of the day, the public needs to acknowledge that the failed neoliberal duopoly, the so-called moderates but in reality, far-right extremists… have walked far-right libertarians to power.  And both factions, neoliberal duopoly and libertarian far-right populists, are identical on the economy and often foreign policy.  Fascist billionaires & monopolies can work with far-right centrist parties and far-right libertarian populists…. They just don’t want to do business with the left.  Moreover, the whole point of capitalism & libertarianism is that some countries, industries, ideas, leaders, investors must be allowed to fail, so that new ideas, investments, and leaders can thrive.  Call it private sector darwinism.  And yet, the same vicious pack of right-wing crooks & libertarian thugs continually live off state welfare & bailouts (aspire to be Too big to fail).  And the final takeaway: despite the libertarian label, libertarians love government, they love welfare, they love socialism… but exclusively for themselves.   Even more odd, these well-heeled libertarians hate competition, markets, and price discovery… in summary, they hate capitalism.   Wealthy libertarians, in reality, want the best of all words: private ownership of monopolies and utilities protected and backstopped by the state with endless war waged against the general public.  The libertarian label is just that, a brand and ideology that the politicians and wealthy are pushing on the public, continuously, while relentlessly bashing collective empathy, fraternity, government, the greater good, socialism, solidarity, and society.  Ironically, the very socialism that has made the billionaire class catastrophically & obscenely wealthy.

 

Libertarianism is good for you, the general public, but not for them, the wealthy.

 

Socialism is bad for you, the general public, but not for them, the rich, the powerful, the connected. 

 

As the public begins to discover that far-right centrist politicians rub elbows with far-right populist libertarians, and oligarchy and big biz are more than happy to work with both… it’s time to give the left a shot.  It’s long, long overdue.  Now the left has to get organized. 

 

  Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2025