Assessing Javier Milei, the World’s Best Leader: Part X

In Part VII of this series about Javier Milei’s libertarian policies in Argentina, I celebrated a 10-percentage point reduction in the nation’s poverty rate.

That’s amazing progress in a short amount of time.

As shown in this updated chart, that good news is now better news. The poverty rate has now fallen by 18-percentage points.

But the best news is that child poverty is dramatically declining.

Here are some excerpts from a report in La Derecha Diario.

…the UNICEF representative in Argentina, Rafael Ramírez Mesec, celebrated that “1.7 million children have come out of poverty” in the country over the past year, despite the strong adjustment promoted by the government of Javier Milei. The statements were made during an interview, where the official praised the policies implemented by the libertarian administration, highlighting as “very striking and worthy of note” the social outcome achieved. …”…It can’t be denied that it is a strong adjustment, with a 5-point reduction in GDP spending, and having managed to reduce poverty…”, stated Ramírez Mesec… The figure released by UNICEF is significant: 1.7 million boys and girls who have come out of poverty in a context where many voices predicted an irreversible deterioration of social indicators.

A story by Adele Cardin in the Rio Times also notes the huge progress in reducing childhood poverty.

Argentina reduced child poverty by 1.7 million in 2024 despite implementing one of Latin America’s most aggressive fiscal reforms, according to UNICEF and the INDEC statistics bureau. The national urban poverty rate plummeted from 52.9% to 38.1% in six months, while extreme poverty halved to 8.2%, marking the sharpest decline in decades. President Javier Milei’s administration achieved this while slashing public spending by 5% of GDP… Private-sector wages grew 3% above inflation in early 2025, restoring purchasing power after years of decline. …Milei’s reforms—deregulation, spending cuts, and currency stabilization—yielded Argentina’s first budget surplus in 14 years. …Argentina’s experiment offers lessons for nations balancing fiscal discipline and social protection. …1.7 million children now face better odds of breaking poverty’s cycle—a tangible outcome in a region long plagued by economic instability.

This news is so good that I wonder whether the lefty economists who warned against Milei’s election are having second thoughts?

But I doubt it. Support for statism is ideological, not rational.

Some of them are outright Marxists. Others are merely (but profoundly) naive.

In every case, however, it appears they want to make life worse for rich people more than they want to improve the lives of poor people.

As Margaret Thatcher famously observed, that’s one of the great tragedies of modern economic policy.

I have no doubt that many statists would love Milei to fail, even though lower-income people would be the biggest losers. That’s a damning indictment of those who put politics above humanity.

And it’s one of the reasons for my Eighth Theorem of Government.