The Lion and the Empanadería
An Argentine tale of solidarity... and empanadas.
Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Buenos Aires, Argentina...
When we left you, gentle reader, we were procrastinating over our administrative duties by regaling you with a tale of truly porteño proportions. (If you missed Act I of our little Argentine story, you can catch up here.)
Today, we pivot from the pizzería to another deliciously hot battleground: the empanadería. Herewith, Part II...
Vignette II – The Lion and the Empanadería
The students have taken to the streets in protest, dear reader. Their cause? Themselves, naturally.
As the Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age proceeds apace down here on the Pampas, predictable drama unfolds in the nation’s hallowed academies of higher learning, where students are lately grasping with an unforeseen life lesson: if one desires something, one must pay for it. (For reals.)
The details of this latest skirmish are long and convoluted but, to give readers the CliffsNotes version: Argentine’s public universities want more state funding... the state has no money. Queue the hoary “education is a right” vs. “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” standoff, along with all the hysterics and histrionics one expects from a college campus kerfuffle.
It is perhaps worth noting up top that, somewhat uniquely in the world, Argentina’s public universities are not only gratis for local students, they are also tuition-free for all international students, too. That goes for Colombians, Venezuelans, Spaniards... Nigerians, Germans, even Australians, who were only too happy to down pencils and join the march for more free stuff. Come one, come all! The only catch (for the poor Argentines taxpayers footing the bill) is that there is no catch.
To be clear, these same free-riding undergrads are under exactly zero obligation to enter the Argentine workforce at any point or contribute to the economy in any measurable way whatsoever. They need only show up to class (negotiable), fumble their way through the four- (ok, six-... fine, eight-) year part-time curriculum, collect their Master’s in Oppression Studies certification, and head back to the patriarchal capitalist nightmare that is their homeland. ¡Ciao y saludos!
And for their part of the deal, the impoverished, overburdened, overtaxed Argentine workers – like those who, say, pull double shifts at the local empanadería – are expected to pay for it. What’s not to like (for the students)?
Of course, Argentina’s public universities have for decades been reliable production lines of Marxist ideology, the administrative state being both the owner of the means of production and the beneficiary of the (ahem...) “output,” as privileged graduates steeped in the class struggle saunter from gender studies symposiums to cushy research jobs at the Ministry of Equity. Natch.
Little wonder, then, that the chosen few should wish to see the flow of other people’s money continue in their direction, unabated. It is, as their professors have spent olympiads lecturing them, their “right” after all.
Enter, “El León,” Javier Milei.
“¡No Hay Plata!”
Abiding by his cranky “if we can’t pay for it, we can’t have it” balanced budget pledge, Milei last month vetoed a spending bill that would have boosted non-existent funding for state’s universities/Keynesian econ-factories. The presidential veto was upheld in Congress on Thursday in precisely the kind of vote today’s conspicuous democracy defenders most loath: free, fair and democratic.
You can already imagine the scenes of chaos and despair in juvenile playpens around the capital, where the thought leaders and would-be central banksters of tomorrow were busy studying how to make the national GDP pie larger by dicing it into ever smaller pieces.
Opting to forgo the afternoon’s Workers of the World Unite! seminar, jilted juniors grabbed their drum circle buddies and made a beer-line for the Quad (also known as the Plaza del Congreso). There, they assumed the familiar battle formation and began chanting, shouting, banging ramen pots and generally abusing anyone resembling an absent father figure. Statist quo antes.
All was proceeding according to plan when the self-appointed torchbearers of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion were confronted with... a single individual who did not share their groupthink opinion.
Franco Antúnez, “Fran Fijap,” is the son of farmers from nearby La Plata who, when he is not feeding the chickens at home, interviews them at anti-Milei marches and protests around the city. He is one of a growing number of young libertarian social media influences known colloquially as Milei’s “Meme Army.” We don’t know much about Fijap but the young man appears provocative, which probably means he has a brain...something not typically tolerated at such gatherings as Thursday’s tantrumfest.
Comrades in Arms
Indeed, after news of Congress’s decision to uphold Milei’s veto rippled through the scholarly mob, they turned unruly and, having already been subjected to Fijap’s uncomfortable questioning and seeing their free toys taken away, promptly treated him to a barrage of projectiles before spitting on him, punching him, kicking him to the ground and chasing him down the street with sticks.
The shaken and battered Fijap found refuge in a local empanadería, where the mostly-female staff gave him refuge while beating back his cowardly attackers, who naturally responded by vandalizing the storefront. Just another day in the Worker’s Paradise (except, of course, for the actual workers).
Said one of the employees, a delivery rider (translated): “I decided to help him [Fijap] because I'm human.”
(The protestors, who apparently did not comprehend the strange language and foreign concept, broke the worker’s bicycle.)
And that would probably have been the end of it, had not the president himself decided to drop in for an unannounced call the following afternoon to thank the employees in person. You can see the surprise and gratitude on their faces clearly enough in the video, below.
As you might imagine, neither Brozziano, the local empanada chain, nor young Fijap, have done poorly out of this ordeal. And the young Samaritan who helped out, Matias, received a new motorcycle. That brings our little tally to...
Alleged workers of the world: 0 – Actual workers of the world: 2
We calmly await round three.
Meanwhile, as the aggrieved DEI consultants of tomorrow bemoan their unsubsidized fate from towers of ivory, inflation out in the real world fell to 3.5% for the month of September... its lowest rate in 3 years and a far cry from the 25.5% inherited from their Peronist comrades-in-arms (we’ll unpack this more fully in a future Note).
That’s good news for people struggling to buy essentials like food, clothing and medicine. Only, don’t tell that to the Marx & Engles evangelists at the state universities. Free markets and free minds might redound to the benefit of free people, but communists of the world will always have their chains to lose... and, judging by their actions, they wouldn’t have it any other way.
And now for your Notes From the End of the Week…
Final Notes…
It could just be our imagination, but we sense the smell of delicious empanadas wafting through our open window, one of the hazards of living in a city which so cherishes its beloved Creole pastries that they were recognized as a Cultural Heritage of Food and Gastronomy by the Argentine Ministry of Culture (whatever that means).
Official distinction or not, we’re off to grab a dozen carne picantes and head to the park with family and friends. Whatever you’re up to this weekend, we trust you’re in good company and fine cheer.
Please feel free to share today’s issue and, as always...
Stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World...
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
P.S. Happily for liberty lovers (and empanada lovers!), freedom is in the ascendency in many places around the world.
It seems like barely a day goes by down here at the End of the World where some nonsensical collectivist weed is not uprooted. And slowly but surely, people are catching on, thanks in large part to independent reporting.
Right here on Substack, for instance, tens of thousands of independent authors, journalists, investigators and opinion columnists are sharing their own perspectives on everything from politics to economics, financial markets to crypto investing, corporatist malfeasance and individual triumphs alike.
We may be small… but we are legion. And we are bringing down the mainstream narrative… one brick at a time.
As always, we are especially grateful to our generous Notes members, whose dues allow us to pursue this humble publication. If you would like to join our growing Notes community and help support the ideas of free markets, free minds and free people, please consider becoming a member today. Thanks in advance ~ JB
Yes Joel “unforeseen life lesson: if one desires something, one must pay for it.”. Not so here in America’s declining democrat cities, where our demented government allows up to $900 of stolen goods from any retailer to be allowed. $1000 or more the poor democrat thieves get a slap the wrist, which they still call racism 🤔. The only way to stop the insanity of our higher education institutions, is 1. Only hire teachers and professors who are willing to educate, and not indoctrinate. 2. The minute the teacher or professor goes off the education path, and places their demented beliefs on the table, the immediate expulsion is applied. 3. Any student who is more interested in protesting over being educated, especially considering 99.9% have no idea what they protest, will be kicked out of school and sent home to their dysfunctional parents or most likely only parent, their mother. In a world where the socialist/democrat government has taken place for parents, it’s not hard to understand why the West is in collapse.
Absolutely fantastic.
What bravery on the part of the Empenda store. And its workers. And to have the president's immediate support, is heart warming. He is doing whatever it takes to get the word out, that those that believe in him and his process, will be embraced by him. Not the office. But by him, the human.
Obviously, those kids revolting were not students of the Austrian School of Economics. One day they will look back on this day and shake their heads wondering what were they thinking when they were demonstrating against saving their own children's futures.