In the midst of the historic
dengue
outbreak in Argentina,
Martín Lousteau
criticized the government of
Javier Milei
for the
lack of repellent
and appealed to an economic term that the President usually uses:
"market failure
. "
In addition, he questioned the Minister of Health, Mario Russo.
"Surely you also spent the last few days looking for repellent everywhere. I'll tell you why this is a 'market failure'. Having a large and deformed state is a problem but
falling into the trap of the minimal state like the one Milei likes It is not the solution either
," he expressed on X (ex Twitter).
In an extensive message, the national senator for the Radical Civic Union referred to the outbreak of the disease transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes to "a market problem" and expressed his concern about the lack of repellent.
"But why this shortage?
Why doesn't the government open imports like it did with other products?
In large part, it is due to a market problem," he asked.
Lousteau then appealed to Friedrich Hayek's theory and explained that according to the economist "one of the attributes of the market is its ability to aggregate hundreds of thousands of individual pieces of information efficiently."
"The
inaction of the government
made each businessman obtain the information
late
. Now it is no longer available: increasing production or importing takes time and the cold is coming. Thus,
the solution would only arrive when the dengue is gone
," he added in his publication.
Surely you also spent the last few days looking for repellent everywhere. I'll tell you why this is a “market failure.” Having a large and misshapen state is a problem but falling into the trap of the minimal state like the one @jmilei likes is not the solution either.…
— Martín Lousteau (@GugaLusto) April 1, 2024
In Davos, when Milei spoke for the first time at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he reiterated a concept that he coins more and more frequently: "Market failures do not exist."
"Under the pretext of a market failure, regulations are introduced that only generate distortions in the price system, which impede economic calculation, and consequently savings and investment," he noted, although it was not the only time he introduced that idea during his speech in Davos. In total he did it about 10 times.
In September, when the current president was just a candidate to occupy the Rivadavia seat, he was heard coining that concept for the first time, at least in public and in the presidential race: "Market failures do not exist."
The concept is a statement framed in an ultra-orthodox tradition of economic literature and theory. From the Austrian School 150 years ago to the theory of Public Choice further back in time. It is part of a whole trend in favor of the free functioning of the market to allocate resources, tasks and prices and to which Milei clings.
This Monday, the president of the national UCR also appealed to the deadline to question the lack of prevention policy of the Argentine State in the face of the worrying increase in dengue infections and requested the opening of imports for repellents due to the lack of them in stores.
"This is just a case where
a good State has more information available faster than the market
. And it can help coordinate responses if it makes decisions or shares the information in time. It is called public health policy," he stated.
Finally, he pointed out that the Government does not agree with this way of thinking and that it applies a policy where
"everyone has to 'make do' to combat dengue
, which demonstrates the" failure "of the President and" of a health minister at the time. that we don't know his face."
D.D.