For this week’s column, I want to explore the failure of socialism in Latin America and then follow up with the miracle that’s happening in Argentina.
Let’s face the facts. According to an August Gallup poll, 49 percent of young Americans hold a positive view of socialism, while 54 percent of U.S. citizens have a favorable view of capitalism, down from 60 percent just four years ago.
Cuba is a great example of socialism’s failure close to home. Begun under Fidel Castro in 1959, Cuba’s socialist country is a complete failure, according to all economic indicators. As recently as 2023, 88 percent of its population was living in extreme poverty.
In 1959, Castro denied being a Communist on NBC’s Meet the Press. Interestingly, the frontrunner in the upcoming election for mayor of New York City, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, has denied the same.
History shows that people in Cuba risked their lives by building rafts out of garbage to escape the harsh conditions in that island country and have a chance to live in America.
More recently, Hugo Chavez ruined the oil-rich country of Venezuela when his government confiscated private property, destroyed industry with price controls and regulations, and forced everyone—except the party elite—into poverty. In 2018, Venezuela is estimated to have had an inflation rate of 63,000 percent. In 2025, it’s down to 225 percent.
Argentina elected a president in 2023 who defends capitalism, promotes deregulation, cuts waste, and slashes government spending. President Javier Milei—who was not a politician—has rejected socialism. As a result, Argentina’s economy has made a miraculous turnaround.
With decades of debt and high inflation Argentina defaulted on its debt five times since 1980. Not long ago it’s annual inflation rate hit over 200 percent.
One of the first things Milei did was eliminate wasteful spending, cutting government departments from 19 to 9 and eliminating 50,000 jobs. The remaining government employees were put on a pay freeze. In addition, he eliminated subsidies, stopped non-essential funding for any local government entity, and more. Sound familiar?
It worked. Reuters reported that Argentina recorded a $589 million budget surplus in January 2024. The country’s stock market hit new highs, and consumer prices stabilized.
Milei’s government removed rent controls—the opposite of what Mamdani proposes for New York City. As a result, the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, has seen a boom in its rental market with a 170 percent increase in rental availability and a 40 percent drop in rental prices, adjusted for inflation.
Milei is an avowed libertarian, the opposite of Mamdani.
In a 2019 op-ed piece on Fox News, Tom Del Beccaro listed nine steps from freedom to socialism to societal breakdown. I don’t have enough room here to explain in detail all of the steps, but here they are:
1. Massive government spending. “Government education, retirement, and medical care—nearly cradle to grave spending—are three cornerstones of future socialist states.”
2. Massive tax systems that reduce incentives.
3. Reduced growth leading to economic stagnation.
4. Massive deficits.
5. The government prints money to pay off debt.
6. The government fixes prices and declares when goods can be sold.
7. Underground economies rise.
8. Class warfare begins tearing the fabric of society.
9. Total societal discord.
In his article, Beccaro describes how the fall of the Roman Republic and Greek democracy followed these steps. For us, there is still hope.
Nick Freitas, a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates since 2016 and social media influencer, on his podcast, The Why Minutes, summed it up perfectly: “Milei’s success is a lesson for the world that when the state steps aside, slashes spending and cuts regulations, economies thrive and, after proving to the world just how destructive socialism can be, Argentina is now leading the way and proving to the world that the best way to fix a broken system is for the government to get out of the way and unleash the power of the individual and the marketplace.”
This is what conservatives want.
