Parasites, Puppets and Presstitutes

Professional protestors down tools in Argentina's general strike...

(A pair of likely renegades prepare to ‘stick it to the man’ at yesterday’s general strike here in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Source: Getty)

Government is a parasite, a cancer that by nature tries to spread deeper into society. Those who want to run others' lives won't give up and start minding their own business.

~ Harry Browne, American libertarian

Joel Bowman, writing from the frontlines in Buenos Aires, Argentina...

Never a dull day down here at the End of the World. 

As faithful readers know, we’re following what we’ve been calling the “Greatest Political Experiment of Our Time”... and so far, it’s more than living up to the billing. 

With more twists than a telenovela (¡chan!) and more turns than a titillating tango... the brick-by-brick dismantling of one of the world’s most corrupt, inept, bloated administrative states proceeds apace. 

Ministry after ministry... subsidy after subsidy... price control after price control... the bureaucratic state is coming apart at the seams. More importantly still, individuals are waking from their collectivist nightmare and one by one coming to realizing that, as Frédéric Bastiat once remarked:

“The state is the great fiction by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.”

If the long-suffering Argentines want a better future... a better country... a better life, for themselves and their children... if they desire an economy that is not a regional basket case and a currency that is not eroding at the fastest rate on the planet (Dec. inflation figures here topped 211% per annum)...then they must embrace their destiny and build it with true grit, cooperation and dogged self-determination.

Happily, most are only too willing to take the reins... 

Friends of Poverty

Of course, despite the largest election victory since the country was returned to democracy, some 40 years ago, not everyone is happy with these disruptions to the status quo antes. Among the disgruntled are the elite moochers, the political parasites, the professional leeches and swamp critters, those who call themselves “friends of the poor” but are more accurately described as “friends of poverty.” 

So it was that yesterday, to the undisguised glee of the mainstream presstitutes, the nation’s most powerful union, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), enacted a general strike in protest of El Presidente’s twin legislative reforms (more about which anon).

To read the hyperventilating headlines from the legacy lapdogs, you’d think the country had descended into a fiery hellscape of Dantean proportions. 

“A nationwide strike in Argentina poses major test to Milei’s economic ‘shock therapy’” – whined CNBC

Argentina: Tens of thousands march against Javier Milei's cuts
- carped the BBC

Argentinians stage nationwide strike against Javier Milei’s far-right agenda
- fretted The Guardian

State vs. Private

Ahead of the march, union henchmen and their foot soldier “golpistas” promised as many as 200,000 protestors would take to the streets of the capital, blocking traffic, shuttering highways and generally making pests of themselves. 

And yet – ¡que sorpresa! – it turns out hard-working Argentines aren’t too keen on supporting their mafioso union bosses when it comes to interfering with their right to earn a living. (Something about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness...”) They’d rather... get this... work than march. 

And so the hashtag #YoNoParo (I don’t stop) began making the rounds on X, as nurses, bus drivers, barbers, Rappi drivers (food delivery folk), small business owners and everyday Argentines posted pictures of themselves going about their business as usual, earning an honest living. 

According to estimates from El Economista, less than 4% of businesses in the capital suspended service, even temporarily, despite threats and intimidation from union henchmen who claim to represent worker’s rights (by stopping them from...uh, eh...working). 

So while state-owned (for now) carrier, Aerolineas Argentinas, was forced to cancel hundreds of flights in obedient acquiescence to union pressure... privately owned low-cost carrier, FlyBondi, met earlier in the week to announce that they would not be suspending service. Faced with the call for forceful measures for Wednesday, January 24, the Flybondi Workers Union Association expresses its total rejection. From their website (translated): 

We consider that the alleged 'general strike' seeks political objectives, aimed at positioning itself against a Government that took office a little over a month ago.

The sector that calls for this extreme measure is the same one that for four years was without reaction... the strike pursues a political purpose and we do not want to be part of it. We are not puppets.

The Anti-Dictator

But what about those twin pieces of legislation, introduced by President Javier Milei, and designed to derogate the unchecked power of the state? And, while we’re at it, will those who can’t help but appending the “dictator” epithet to the man’s name please explain to us why any authoritarian worth his salt would want to devolve power from the state to the people? Moving along... 

The first such document, if you’re just joining us, is the so-called “mega-decree,” or DNU. Signed into law Dec. 20 (and in effect 8 days later), this executive decree strips the government of immense and overreaching powers to meddle in the country’s labor markets, leaving free people to determine with whom and under what conditions they choose to enter commercial relationships. 

Libertarianism being the radical notion that other people are not the government’s property, this one seemed like a no-brainer. (You can catch up on the abridged, 30-point plan here.) 

Critics of the executive decree have their Gucci-clad “lady of the people,” Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, to thank for having vested the executive branch with such powers. Shame how that came back to bite them on the proverbial culo.

Inflation Cooling

The second piece of legislation, the massive Omnibus Bill, was approved for debate by a committee in the lower chamber of deputies early on Wednesday, even before paid protestors arrived at their sweaty grievance swap meet. At a hefty 351-pages, it will make its way through Congresso’s “negotiating process,” beginning today. We’ll keep a close eye on that one for you in future Notes...

Meanwhile, to the plaintive lamentations of the perennially distressed, there are some early, tentative indications that white hot inflation may have begun to cool in January. Translated from local newspaper El Clarin:

The high-frequency inflation survey by Orlando Ferreres y Asociados (OJF) gave 1.4% in the third week of January, the lowest record in 4 months, according to the consulting firm.

(h/t @BowTiedMara for the chart)

All of which leaves one to wonder: without rampant money-printing... absent actually oppressive laws and state edicts... bereft of a real life dictator... with nothing to fear but their own shadows…

... what will los piqueteros have left to complain about? 

Cheers,

Joel Bowman