Privatizing Property Must Be Done Domestically

Freedom for Citizens

If you’ve followed our hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, Gumroad and Instagram #StayOnTheBall you’ve noticed that we strive to abide by our three primary principles; Truth, Freedom and Wordliness. These items inspire us to adopt the writing position that maximizes individual liberty and personal autonomy on all levels. Likewise, the economic & political beliefs of libertarianism, minarchism & anarcho-capitalism that champion liberty of the individual, personal responsibility and private property are argued, too.

In recent years, we have witnessed the privatization of property and assets in Central & West Asia with great success, whereas in the Western world, assets are de-facto nationalized (or at least operate under a regulatory environment to produce the same effect). This is fundamentally a great trend for the former where responsibility is delegated to people who have the know-how and the capital to compete and produce a great product as opposed to a government who’s only incentives are to loot the country as fast as possible. Capital will always go where it’s treated best.

The result taken to it’s extreme has the government privatizing all assets within the country, globally–meaning that the government no longer control anything with respect to the economy. No problem from me there.

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As we’re seeing in Argentina currently, all the main vital aspects of the country are going through a stage of privatization (again). The main problem I see, comes when you neglect the local citizens as having first dibs and buying such property.

Javier Milei, the Argentine President, is keen on getting the first part correct, but the buyers are international who have no real tie to Argentina at all. In other words, the real owners of the country are those existing with capital or the big sharks of the sea able to gobble everything up. Furthermore, the rumoured buyers are Blackrock, Wall Street firms and JP Morgan executives, those closest to the ‘money-printing cabal’ who would be using their crooked game to capitalize upon a fair one.

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If all the oil, all the cattle, all the resorts, all the airlines, the mail departments, the technological innovations, the immigration departments, the vineyards and real estate are privately owned owned by a foreigner than this would erase not only the government, but the country itself. Given the nature of the state (state= government) you may say “so what…”; but the inner workings of the now former country will be sacrificed. That is, the culture, the common themes, the interpersonal relationships between people will be erased if those who inhabit those lands are without any property, or meaning themselves. Look at the countries of Kiribati, Tuvalu or French Polynesia; all of the main assets of those places are foreign-owned and the locals own nothing with no real contribution to the world. How can a President of a country who advocates for freedom support policies that directly deprives the people of the items that unlock freedom–assets?

News:

The catch?

ANY BUYER is able to purchase these assets.

Milei will put Aerolineas Argentinas up for sale by Executive Order today.¡AFUERA!

Should it be privatized? Absolutely. Is it a colossal failure since being nationalized? Absolutely. But one has to ask how the Argentines are benefiting here?

Guilty Myself?

Since I own oil stock in Colombia, gold miners in Nevada (USA), Coal processing in Mongolia, you could say that I am also guilty of such international buying and I am committing the same fault. I think this is only partly true, because while I am still an international owner, my access to ownership and ability to exercise corporate rights will be far less than the new buyers rest assured. To add, the sale of those assets I purchased were already privately owned, rather than being in an active transition period.

Private Equity’ing it

Private equity has received a bad name (in some ways, for good reason) for buying up private companies that are failing, in-default, terribly unprofitable, distressed or perhaps in early stages with the sole purpose of restructuring (often meaning massive layoffs) to turn an immediate profit for themselves. While the founders of an airline or long-term shareholders may be looking outward 20 years to the indefinite future, private equity managers may be looking to cut open the orange for one last 3-5 year squeeze. After this last squeeze, they’ll pay themselves huge cheques and the underlying company/assets will be left for dead.

Some writers in Argentina already speculate this is exactly what is going to happen

As a private company, Aerolineas would likely undergo significant structural changes and focus on profitable routes, potentially eliminating unprofitable regional routes.

Solutions

The solution is to therefore privatize as many assets as possible–but doing so that the ownership is given ‘first dibs’ to be domestically held. It doesn’t have to be limited to citizenry; it’s simply wiser to include them to partake in their own country.

I am not in favour of anything being nationalized, nor that the government serves any useful purpose, but rather, I am questioning if someone should welcome capital without hesitation as the control will be passed off to others without any longevity outlook.

Best. President. Ever.

How could the socialists be upset by being granted an opportunity to own previously national companies at a discounted price? How could the “big government” lovers hate someone who literally hands them a chance to own a slice of what was that big government?

This is not to say that “the people” would run the company, simply that they have a chance to retain ownership of the domestic asset(s) while the big fish owners could still operate it domestically or internationally more efficiently. Everybody locally working in the industry would wish to see it run more efficiently if their share certificates were on the line and they’d be indifferent with a rich Jew or Arab retaining majority board seats. Why is Milei excluding local Argentines in this sale?

Further

Furthermore, the central argument for privatizing (of the airline in Argentina) is the large economic debt hole it was costing the Argentine government by running every year. Of course, arguing that all taxpayers are funding this giant hole (whereas only 5% of Argentines fly regularly) makes sense–but why is nobody suggesting that Milei ought to radically reduce taxes?

During my time in Argentina, absolutely nobody had the idea that their taxes would fall anytime soon. If this was really a move to comfort taxpayers, taxes would have been reduced drastically long ago. They’ll continue to pay for this indebtedness until it is sold abroad by the 100s of millions and see no future return for their payment history.

Closing

While this may sound like I am questioning my beliefs of the world, I am not. I am simply proposing that the answer for all countries, namely Argentina (as its the most recent & critical) is to consider the sale of assets by offering a private placement, or insider deal to citizens of that country firstly. Thereafter, others around the world are given an opportunity to achieve majority ownership. In this way, it gives the locals a reason to operate efficiently, it appeases the voter population, it still provides the free market with a chance to earn profits on a new opportunity and it reduces the risk of the assets being raped for a quick profit by indifferent foreigners.

Furthermore, this system (of lack of government) works best if it is adopted worldwide, providing a larger selection of free-market opportunities rather than isolated occurrences. If nothing changes globally, an un-level playing field (from prior government distortions) shows itself. What’s stopping a money printer from New York gobbling up “free-market” assets? As long as Central Banks, big government and large politburos exist, then they will ensure that any strive towards freedom, regardless of the country, will be extinguished on the spot.

This is why I encourage you to Subscribe and share our articles! So these principles of free markets can be adopted as widely across the world as possible! Until then, Viva La Libertad, Carajo.

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