President Javier Milei has gifted the book 'Defending the Undefendable' by American economist Walter Block to his ministers. This choice serves as a doctrinal signal of his government's ideological direction.
Originally published in 1976, the work is a classic of libertarian thought, proposing to analyze economics through extreme and socially rejected cases. The book's main thesis is that if an activity is voluntary and does not involve aggression against third parties, it should not be prohibited by the state, even if it is morally uncomfortable.
To develop this thesis, Block analyzes figures such as prostitutes, drug dealers, usurers, and blackmailers, aiming to separate moral judgment from legality and economic analysis. From this perspective, the author applies core concepts like supply and demand, incentives, prices, and hidden costs, concluding that state intervention often aggravates the problems it seeks to correct, pushing activities into the underground and generating unintended consequences.
The book is based on the non-aggression principle, a cornerstone of libertarianism: no one has the right to initiate the use of force against another person or their property. Within this framework, Block questions regulations and prohibitions that, in his view, respond more to moral impositions than to criteria of economic efficiency or individual freedom.
Milei's choice of the book was interpreted as a political message to his cabinet: to defend freedom even when it is unpopular, to reduce the role of the state, and to prioritize market logic over state paternalism.
Decades after its publication, the book remains one of the most controversial and influential works in radical liberal ideology.
