Argentinian President Javier Milei, speaking at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, invoked the Bible to inspire his audience to return to the values that made the West great.
“I am here before you to state categorically that Machiavelli has been dead for years,” Milei began. “Our thinking has been distorted by a false dilemma in the design of public policy, one that claims we must choose between political efficiency and respect for the ethical and moral values of the West.”
“As Professor Jesús Huerta de Soto explains in his work on dynamic efficiency, from this perspective, efficiency is not compatible with multiple schemes of equity or justice; rather, it arises exclusively from one: respect for private property and the entrepreneurial function,” he stated. “Therefore, the opposition between efficiency and justice is false and mistaken. What is just cannot be inefficient, and what is efficient cannot be unjust. From the standpoint of dynamic analysis, justice and efficiency are two sides of the same coin.”
Referring to the economist Murray Rothbard, who established the connection between the dynamic conception of economic efficiency and ethics, Milei declared, “Only the ethical principles underlying Western culture can serve as a criterion of efficiency when making public policy decisions. Put bluntly, when designing public policy, it is ethically and morally inadmissible to sacrifice justice on the altar of efficiency. This commitment to values stands above economic efficiency and far above political utilitarianism. When ethical and moral values are abandoned, policies become not only unjust, but also lead to collapse — not only economic collapse, but social collapse as well, to the point of threatening Western civilization itself.”
“We must never forget Thomas Sowell’s words about socialism: it sounds wonderful, but the catch is that it always ends badly — horribly badly,” he warned. “Beyond the repeated disasters of socialism in the twentieth century, we see today the aberrant damage caused in Venezuela — not only an 80% collapse in GDP, but worse still, the establishment of a bloody narco-dictatorship whose terrorist tentacles spread throughout the American continent.”
“Today more than ever, faced with the ethical and moral degradation of the West resulting from the embrace of a new socialist agenda, it is necessary to reclaim and assert the ideas of liberty. However, unlike past approaches based on utilitarianism, the defense of free-enterprise capitalism must today be grounded in its ethical and moral virtue,” he asserted. “If we want to emerge from our dark present, we must return to Greek philosophy, embrace Roman law, and restore Judeo-Christian values — the foundations that can save the West.”
“Many human conflicts arise from a failed relationship between natural law and positive law,” he continued. “Natural law governs human beings because it aligns with their nature and is therefore universally just. It is common to all humanity, intrinsic, immutable, and unchangeable. Positive law, by contrast, is written by humans for their convenience. When positive law aligns with natural law, there is justice; otherwise, it may be legal, but not legitimate. Private property ensures maximal productive effort. Protecting physical integrity rather than value ensures continual productive improvement. Any deviation reduces productive effort.”
“Regulation kills increasing returns and thus kills growth,” he stated. “This logic applies equally to artificial intelligence, which is the 21st-century equivalent of Adam Smith’s pin factory. States should stop harassing those building a better world. Dystopian fears are nonsense. Market size and real resources limit expansion. Human capital remains vital.”
“Public policy must be guided by ethics, not utilitarianism, which always leads to injustice, populism, and poverty. Machiavelli is dead. It is time to bury him,” he said. “Free markets make us better people. They allow us to prosper, defend property, preserve peace, achieve social harmony, and strengthen the virtues essential to a prosperous society.”
Then he turned to the Bible:
I will close with a reflection from this week’s Torah portion. The parasha Bo describes the moment when Moses confronts Pharaoh, the symbol of the oppressive power of the state, to warn him that if he did not free the Hebrew people, the last three plagues would fall upon Egypt. When the Pharaoh refused, the plague of locusts arrived, which signifies famine. Then came the plague of darkness, which means the loss of clarity for decision-making. Finally, the plague of death of the first-born, which reveals the fate of a society that denies freedom. The analogy with what is happening today in the West is extremely clear.
The West turned its back on liberty, embraced socialism in its most hypocritical form — wokeism — and put itself in danger.
But 2026 brings good news. The world is awakening. America is experiencing a rebirth of liberty and will once again be the beacon that reignites the West.
We have a better future — if we return to the roots of the West: the ideas of liberty.
May God bless the West.
May the forces of heaven be with us.
Long live liberty.
.png)
.png)
