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The alfajor paradox: Milei, the chainsaw and the permits that never get cut

In Argentina, selling an alfajor on the street requires a municipal permit. The video of a young entrepreneur trying to make a living from his cart has reignited the debate over the consistency of Javier Milei's liberalism. While the president promises to dismantle the State, street vendors still have to navigate the bureaucracy that the libertarian rhetoric promised to eliminate.

The myth of self-regulation
Liberal theory holds that the market regulates itself: if a vendor sells spoiled food, he will lose customers and fruta. However, defenders of health permits argue that information asymmetry and the risk of irreversible harm justify state intervention. Beneath the debate lies an uncomfortable question: where does individual freedom end and consumer protection begin? Critics point out that if Milei argues that companies can pollute rivers because the owners of the water will care, then there is no reason to require permits from an alfajor vendor.

The selective chainsaw
While small businesses face bureaucracy, Argentine lawmakers gave themselves an 80% pay raise in June 2024. Milei's government, which promised a chainsaw against public spending, has not stopped its own legislators from pocketing more money. The contradiction does not go unnoticed by those who see in these measures proof that liberalism is just a slogan.

Real inflation remains among the highest in the world, unemployment is growing and crime shows no sign of abating. For critics, the Milei experiment is a more aggressive version of Macrism, with the same failed results. For his supporters, change takes time and today's permits are fewer than before.

Milei's Argentina is torn between the libertarian ideal and the reality of a country weighed down by decades of interventionism. The question no one answers is whether the permits will ever disappear or whether, like the water in the rivers, freedom will only be complete when it has an owner to protect it.

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