Long live freedom, damn it!

Long live freedom, damn it!

Peter Kopa, May 7, 2025

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The title above, although vulgar, has become established in the media as a battle cry against the bureaucratic megalomania of the state, which has become an impenetrable jungle, full of ponds of corruption, waste, and nonsense. Milei has opted to use a chainsaw and shows us that the optimal way for the state to function boils down to common sense and an unwavering intention to serve only the good of the people.

Olivier Kessler is a renowned Swiss journalist and thinker. He heads the Liberal Institute based in Zurich. Here we discuss his reflections on freedom within the framework of the state and the open and free economy. As is well known, this topic has been thought out and rethought hundreds of times in the West, not always with the necessary philosophical and humanistic preparation, and not always with the right intention of seeking above all the good of the citizen, whom the state and its laws must serve. We refer here to what we have already written on the subject: https://thinktanklatam.org/la-cuestion-del-gobierno-politico-i/

In the final analysis, whether political authority is at the service of its people depends less on the laws than on the moral profile of its rulers. If it is not anchored in a Judeo-Christian view of man, it will end up becoming a golden calf to stifle the voice of conscience and opening the door wide to the selfishness of the abuse of power.

It should be borne in mind that, in OECD countries, the tax burden in some countries is reaching half of economic productivity, which gives the government the power to handle a great deal of money without much control by the people who voted for it. Thus, rulers are exposed to the temptation of corruption, which is unfortunately wreaking havoc even in countries that until recently were considered free of this scourge.

Quotes from Kessler and comments

“It is a misconception that the market economy is only about money, about economics, and that it has nothing to do with ethics and morals. This gap must be filled by political authority. The state must ensure that the market economy is kept under control so that, in addition to economic considerations, there is also room for human considerations. Many people see the economic advantages of free markets. They recognize that they lead to an impressive increase in prosperity, a massive reduction in poverty, and greatly improved living conditions.”

“In a free market economy, no one acts under duress. No one is robbed, no one is threatened with violence, no one is forced to do something they do not want to do. Those who agree something with others sign contracts and exchange goods and services, and they do so because they get something in return, so that both parties benefit, voluntarily and on equal terms.”

Property rights and freedom

“Private property, the core of capitalism, is not only an economically valuable concept, but also a deeply ethical one: it protects what people have built with their time, creativity, and vital energy. It defends responsibility and dignity and allows for true solidarity. And precisely for this reason, state intervention in this free exchange, in contractual freedom, and in private property is a matter of ethical importance. Not because the market is ‘sacred’, but because coercion is wrong”.

‘We must stop talking about the free market only in terms of figures and statistics. We must see it for what it is: a system of peace, cooperation, and mutual respect that is morally superior to all other known systems. An order in which no one is better than anyone else with special privileges granted by the state, but in which everyone is on an equal footing. All are equal before the law”. https://thinktanklatam.org/es-la-democracia-un-engano/

“The market is not the problem. Nor is it the only answer to the question of what framework conditions allow peaceful, free, and prosperous coexistence. It is rather a balanced system in which ethical coexistence can flourish”.

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I would add to this that the free market is essentially required by the condition of man as a rational and therefore free individual, with all the rights and obligations that flow from this. These are something that belongs to his nature, governed by Natural Law, whose basic principles are found in the Ten Commandments. These in turn inspire the Constitution and laws throughout the Judeo-Christian Western world. The experience of history tells us that political liberalism, as we understand it in these reflections, if not based on the transcendence of human life destined to live eternally, will sooner or later fall into atheistic materialism that would undermine its high principles of human dignity and freedom.

State support for businesses

I continue to quote Kessler: “What really increases the prosperity of a society? In his new article, Olivier Kessler demonstrates that it is not state research programs worth billions, patent protection, or state innovation policy, but rather voluntary exchange, specialization, savings, and market-oriented innovation. He warns that when the state centralizes research and distributes financial resources, it ends up creating unfair monopolies with intellectual property, which not only jeopardizes economic efficiency but also individual freedom.”

Europe is sick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCOsgfINdKg

‘How can this be? How can a continent as prosperous as Europe be falling further and further behind internationally and losing importance? Europe is drowning in bureaucracy, regulation, and skepticism about growth. Instead of promoting prosperity, it is slowly destroying it with new burdens, regulations, and collectivist ideologies. Instead of valuing entrepreneurship, it discourages investment and promotes a false moral image of the entrepreneur as a villain”.

“The political goal? Redistribution, uniformity, and technocracy instead of liberation, empowerment, and protection of private property”.

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As I said above, Europe’s decline is due to the fact that its leaders and part of its people have made it their golden calf. Thus, they become victims of brutal materialistic and atheistic media manipulation, which can be seen since the sexual revolution of the 1960s, fueled by the contraceptive pill. Then divorce, legal abortion, and so many other manifestations of a view of man as equal to an animal were promoted.

Behind the scenes, the strings are being pulled by secret societies, which have staged the COVID-19 pandemic and so many other globalist evils that cause enormous suffering and despair amid remarkable economic prosperity. But this decline has been halted thanks to the return to faith that can be seen in the US and other leading countries. This great return will be the subject of another article on thinktanklatam.org.