Block on Hoppe on Milei on Decentralism, Isolationism and Israel
By Walter Block
My learned friend Hans Hermann-Hoppe has recently offered a critical evaluation of Javier Milei, president of Argentina. If I had to summarize it in one single advertising jingle it would be: “He is as good as any leader of any country, at present, and better than some.” This, perhaps, is an unlikely way of presenting the matter, but an accurate one.
Hoppe full well acknowledges that Milei did indeed get rid of rent control and axed several Argentinian business regulations. But he insists that this libertarian president instituted others, to take the place of those which disappeared. Worse, he promised to rid his country of the central bank, but did not do so. Nor did he end all taxes, which Hoppe correctly identifies as nothing less than theft. My only objection, so far, is a judgement call. I maintain that this evaluator was quite a bit too critical of his target. He is engaged in damning him with very faint praise. Hoppe does not take into account the precariousness of Milei’s position. If this politician had acted like the Rothbardian Hoppe presumably requires of him, he would long ago have been impeached, and would no longer be in a position to bring liberty and sound economics to Argentina. But these are only disputes over degree, not kind, that I have with Hoppe.
