Benjamin Williams



Articles by Benjamin Williams

No, Milei Is Not a Fascist

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard. Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

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No, Milei Is Not a Fascist

The electoral victory of Javier Milei in Argentina was a pleasant surprise to libertarians internationally. For the first time ever, an open anarchocapitalist was elected president of a sovereign nation. Milei’s fame isn’t limited to libertarian circles, though. Right-wingers all over the world have praised him for his battle against corruption and economic ruin. He was even given a spot headlining for former president Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2024, one of the biggest conservative events in the United States. Currently, he is one of the most popular heads of state in the world. Quite a lot of impressive feats for someone of a heterodox philosophy.Milei is an Austrian economist. He taught economics for over twenty years and became quite the celebrity

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No, “Science” Has Not Proven Mises Wrong on Socialism

In response to the many shortcomings of the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong’s China, and Venezuela, the refrain, “It wasn’t real socialism,” has emerged as a rallying cry among apologists of socialism. Some readily admit the failures of these regimes and attribute the failures to capitalism rather than socialism. Some refuse to recognize the failure whatsoever; they see these experiments as genuine instances of “real socialism” and perceive them to be unequivocal successes.
How can this happen? Don’t we have mountains of evidence that these regimes were catastrophic failures? That is definitely the case, but these socialists also claim to have mountains of evidence in their favor—at least enough to catch a capitalist off guard. Most Americans have been taught their whole lives that the USSR was

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Decentralization Is Not Fascism

Despite its origin in Marxist-syndicalist thought, “fascism” has long been used as a derogatory label for practically anyone on the right wing of the political spectrum. Sometimes the label is warranted, but other times it is used against those who have virtually nothing in common with fascists, such as libertarian capitalists. Progressives are quick to label any kind of economic deregulation and reduction in federal overreach as “fascist.”
Want to have a free market? Fascist. Want to get the federal government out of education? Fascist.
The history of projecting fascism’s crimes onto capitalism and capitalists is very long. The Communist International in 1935 declared fascism the result of monopoly capitalism. In the 1960s and ’70s, many Marxist intellectuals like Kurt Gossweiler and

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Patents, Legal Monopolies, and the High Prices for Drugs

Currently, 63 percent of American adults are on prescription drugs, according to a 2021 survey. Of this 63 percent of Americans, 26 percent say they have difficulty affording their prescriptions. Despite the prices of prescription drugs falling in recent years, an increasing number of Americans are concerned about high drug costs and demanding action be taken, 88 percent saying they want it to be easier for generic drugs to enter the market.

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