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‘Bad and dangerous’: Argentina’s Trump on track to become president

www.theguardian.com ‘Bad and dangerous’: Argentina’s Trump on track to become president

With election Sunday, populist Javier Milei vows to abolish central bank, loosen gun laws, legalize sale of human organs

‘Bad and dangerous’: Argentina’s Trump on track to become president
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  • Economic inequality being one of the biggest drivers of democratic back sliding. Shitty part is that authoritarian doesn’t really offer anything better.

    The wealthiest people of this world have created a world that’s tearing itself apart. And their only hedge is the thought that we will all be too busy killing each other that we forget completely about them. Hence these megalomaniacs that appear as distraction to keep us fighting each other.

    • Guillotine has entered the chat

    • It will take years for some counties to figure this out and then suddenly, there is a run for Italian made piano string. In other despot run counties, Christmas Eve will be seen as somewhat of a bummer to a defiant couple staring down the barrel of a gun.

    • Economic inequality being one of the biggest drivers of democratic back sliding.
      Shitty part is that authoritarian doesn’t really offer anything better.

      Hey! Let's solve "economic inequality" with more statism! That's not authoritarian at all!

      Obviously, wanting to reduce the monopolical privileges of politicians, public spending and taxes (robbery), erradicating the central bank, increasing work flexibility and advocating for individual rights and liberty is fascist af. Believe me, guys!

      • Saying taxes are theft has to be the most brain dead take. Even if your government is corrupt, its not the fault of taxation.

        • With the levels of corruption in Argentina taxes are pretty much just a way to give money to politicians.

          • It doesn't matter. That is an issue with the politicians not taxation. If you were to abolish taxes you'd also have to figure out a way to run your society without money because you won't be paying for shit without them.

            • Taxes are mostly to control the flow of money and to give a currency legitimacy (if you need dollars to pay taxes, you likely will want to earn in dollars).

              Governments that control their own supply of money can print and use money freely.

              They don’t use the money from taxes to fund anything, that wouldn’t make sense.

              Programs and agencies are funded NOW, while taxes are collected later.

              If there is inflation, the state can just raise taxes. If there is no economic activity (deflation), just increase spending.

              Orthodox economists, classical liberals, are fucking dumb and live in dreamland.

              Case in point, there are countries that collect very little to no taxes. Like Saudi Arabia, formerly Libya, North Korea etc. They still have/had extensive government programs.

              • Business taxes – including corporate income tax and self-employed income tax at a standard rate of 20% on business profits; VAT-registered businesses also pay VAT at a standard rate of 15%
                Withholding taxes (WHT) – payable by non-residents on income made in Saudi Arabia, at a rate of between 5% and 20%
                Real estate transaction tax (RETT) – effective from October 2020, this is payable on property transactions at a rate of 5%
                White land tax (WLT) – payable by owners of urban vacant land designated for commercial or residential use at an annual rate of 2.5% of market value.
                Social security contributions – paid by Saudi employees at the rate of up to 10% of their salary, with the employer also contributing up to 12%
                Zakat – a kind of charitable tax that is linked to the Islamic faith and contributes towards those in need, charged at 2.5% on the net worth of all Saudi nationals and businesses.

                There are a shit ton of taxes in Saudi Arabia. Because they need it to pay for shit.

                • Ok I was wrong in one of the examples. It’s indeed very hard to find countries that don’t tax at all, as it’s an important tool to control and maintain currency legitimacy.

                  But that doesn’t invalidate what I said at all.

                  Taxes are not used to fund the government. The government literally prints money. They are the ones that do it. They can do it whenever they want. They can also borrow almost infinitely unlike regular people. The government doesn’t need to “earn” money to spend it like people.

                  They own and control money, the currency as a whole.

                  Just read on the origins of money (“Debt the first 5000 years” for example) if you want to understand this more. I’m not a professional explainer so I might fuck things up.

                  But yeah, if a government spends too much but has no revenue (from national companies, taxes etc.) their currency can lose legitimacy. But if a country like the US has their whole currency backed by all countries in the world needing to hold huge reserves of it for international trade, the spending can reach astronomical levels before the currency starts to lose legitimacy.

                  It’s easier to be replaced by the Yen than to spend too much… Which is why politicians keep raising spending by hundreds of billions every year. But they never need to raise more taxes… Just complaint about the debt when they’re the opposition. Which keeps rising without any negative effect.

                  Idk man, like I said I’m not a professional explainer. You can read more on this or see some videos. Like it’s not such a fringe topic, I’m not being an edgy contrarian.

      • Let's solve "economic inequality" with more statism!

        I can vote the State, I can't vote the CEO.

        Obviously, wanting to reduce the monopolical privileges of politicians

        That's the citizens job, not his. Milei just wants to reduce the privileges of those disagreeing, at no point would Milei want to reduce the privileges that allows him to unilaterally reduce the political privileges of those opposed to him. Let him actually put forward something that actually indicates that HE wants less power and we'll talk about this aspect.

        public spending and taxes

        Again it's the citizens that dictate that. I can vote for people wanting to build something in the State, not a CEO that wants to build a highway for the goodwill of mankind.

        erradicating the central bank

        Nobody wants to be the "bad guy". Many nations are suffering the fate of too long supportive monetary policy without fiscal policy to follow. Same can be said about the USA. They rode too high and too far on quantitative easing at some point the party ends and nobody likes being "that guy". Again, that's mostly on the backs of the capricious voters who don't like mild inconveniences so they hold out for major ramifications. And why? There's way less disposable income in the hands of the many. So literally any inconvenience is a massive blow to their way of life. And it shouldn't be a hard guess for you to figure out why so many in the public have so little.

        increasing work flexibility and advocating for individual rights and liberty

        Every "work flexibility" I've ever seen pitched is just code for turning people into wage slaves. Sort of how like the UK got a lot of "trade flexibility" with Brexit. Once I've seen a working example that didn't actually fuck everyday citizens over, we'll talk.

        As for individual rights and selling organs. I'm actually cool with that. There's quite a list of incredibly wealthy people I'd like to exercise those rights on.

        fascist af

        It's just that every time I've seen someone purpose breaking the system to make it better, they just want to break the system so that they can profit. I literally expect nothing less from Milei. This is the age of grift, why should anyone believe any one who pitches "I swear, I'll build something better, just first give me the power to destroy every protection you have first." Sure buddy, sure you will.

        • I can vote the State, I can't vote the CEO.

          You vote for certain politicians, other people vote for other politicians, and whoever wins, the tyranny of majority will emerge. The success of the CEO is dependent of supply and demand, if there are no monopolical privileges. (I discussed this in another reply).

          That's the citizens job, not his.

          Following your logic, the citizens voting him is a perfect clue of this, am I right? Otherwise, I agree with you about what Milei will do with his powers. I don't trust 100% any politician, even him, but he's the only one who explicitly showed that, like donating each month his salary (funded by taxes) and not funding certain political campaigns.

          Again it's the citizens that dictate that. I can vote for people wanting to build something in the State, not a CEO that wants to build a highway for the goodwill of mankind.

          Citizens has no direct influence in the process of decision politicians make. The CEO (at exception of lobbyists) wanting to build a highway is: using his own factors of production achieved by social-cooperation (capital, land, technology and workers) and his desire of providing it emerges by supply and demand, by competence in a free-market setting and the economic calculation of consumers in a system of prices.

          Nobody wants to be the "bad guy"

          Sorry, but I don't get what you're trying to tell me here. Read about the Austrian Business Cycle Theory.

          Every "work flexibility" I've ever seen pitched is just code for turning people into wage slaves.

          Leaving aside the exact policies of Milei about this (as I'd prefer no policy at all), any governmental intervention in labor markets will cause unemployment among less productive workers. The term "slave" is not valid because those workers voluntary agreed, in a contract, the amount of money they'd get to do certain job.

          "Wages represent the discounted productivity of labor in satisfying consumer demand. Demand for consumer goods translates into demand for workers."

          It's just that every time I've seen someone purpose breaking the system to make it better, they just want to break the system so that they can profit.

          Fair enough. Distrust in politicians is perfectly logic and ethical, but accusing him of fascist? It does not make any sense.

          • the tyranny of majority will emerge

            Which is why in most democracies there are inalienable rights and due process.

            The success of the CEO is dependent of supply and demand, if there are no monopolical privileges

            Unless they are a monopoly. Which most societies have established rules to prevent. Outside of those rules, we've seen time and time again such form. Capitalism doesn't have an inbuilt mechanism that prevents a single person owning everything, that tends to be the problem we run into often.

            Following your logic, the citizens voting him is a perfect clue of this, am I right?

            He's allowed to follow the process to remove the process. That doesn't mean that's a good choice. But yeah, you can absolutely use that logic to follow to that end. That's the nice thing about democracy it's flexible enough to become a ship we built to wreck. And voters are empowered enough to sink themselves if they so wish. So I question what freedom is not present currently that you lament the lack of?

            but he's the only one who explicitly showed that, like donating each month his salary (funded by taxes) and not funding certain political campaigns

            Yeah, that's not the altruism that it looks like. He's ultimately picking who is getting that money of his. He's picking which campaigns to not find funding. That's the point, not the money part the power part. The money part is one thing, the power part is something that one would be ill advised to lose sight of.

            Citizens has no direct influence in the process of decision politicians make

            They're not made to. Citizens have oversight and challenge on the wisdom of representatives. It would be unwise to have 500,000 peoples' hands on the steering wheel. There's no one direction we would be going in then.

            The term "slave" is not valid because those workers voluntary agreed, in a contract, the amount of money they'd get to do certain job

            When the choice is "go hungry" or "work" that's hardly voluntary. You will find it hard to convince me otherwise.

            but accusing him of fascist? It does not make any sense.

            If you read though my comments, at no point did I indicate him as fascist. Authoritarian, yes. He's looking to consolidate power to himself to enact change unilaterally, that's authoritarian. Not every authoritarian is fascist but it is important to understand the fertile ground such leaves for the future. Lenin didn't invent Stalin but he sure opened the door. And that's something to consider.

      • If taxes are robbery then using public infrastructure like roads without paying taxes is also theft.

        Taxes exist because public goods are actually good, and benefit everyone. The sum of the parts is greater than the individual parts. Your taxes pay for roads and public transit which are used to get people to work to create wealth for a community. It turns out the thing that makes humans great is community and banding together. Taxes are a formal way of doing that.

        Now, we need equitable taxes, but that would involve taxing the rich proportionally. This is economically sound because wealth doesn’t trickle down and the mega wealthy are, well, mega wealthy because they hoard wealth. That money would be better spent creating better roads, better public transit, better education, or in short, a better community. The prospect of a better community only upsets those who are not members of the community, because their insane wealth puts them in a different class, and those who think defending that class will somehow get them privilege. The only privilege we need is a better community.

      • The problem is when crooks privatize these things they steal billions of dollars worth of taxpayer money. Yes Argentina is messed up, but it's because of corruption. Privatization or socialization, both will fail because of corruption.

        Like, private school or public school, they both fail if the principal is stealing money, this isn't a leftist/rightist issue.

      • 💤

      • There are no borders, individual rights or liberties without taxes. You become a subject to whatever country's citizens pay enough taxes to take you over and use your resources and labor for their benefit.

      • I cant believe an actually informed comment exists on this thread, everytime Milei pops on here its an Article calling him fascist and everyone on the comments agreeing to it

85 comments