Argentine President Javier Milei used the 90th anniversary celebrations of Colegio ORT to deliver a lecture to fourth- and fifth-year secondary students, outlining the ethical and philosophical foundations of his administration's policymaking. The address drew directly from the epilogue of his book, Capitalismo, la Divina Maquinaria del Paraíso, whose overarching title is La Moral como Política de Estado.
Milei told students that his government approaches every policy decision through three perspectives, the first of which centres on ethics and morality. He stated that his administration does not accept moral relativism and works instead from a fixed set of non-negotiable values. Within that ethical framework, he identified four analytical pillars: Greek philosophy, Roman law and natural rights, Stoic thought, and Judaeo-Christian values.
On natural rights, Milei drew a distinction between legality and legitimacy, arguing that when positive law contradicts natural law, a norm may be legal but is not legitimate. He warned that the state itself can be the source of major injustices even while operating within formal legal structures.
Invoking the Stoic tradition, Milei cited King Solomon as a model leader who sought wisdom to distinguish good from evil, courage to choose the good, and temperance to accept the consequences of those choices — qualities he described as directly relevant to his own position.
The president also referenced the work of economist Jesús Huerta de Soto on dynamic efficiency, endorsing Huerta de Soto's argument that justice and efficiency are two sides of the same coin: nothing can be truly efficient if it is unjust, and what is just will inexorably prove efficient.
Milei connected this framework explicitly to capitalism, contending that the system's efficiency depends on values — freedom, respect for life, property, and contracts — that he said are reflected in the Ten Commandments. Policies aligned with Judaeo-Christian values, he argued, promote both material and spiritual prosperity and, in turn, generate political support at the ballot box. He added that this renders Machiavellian thinking obsolete, since doing what is right also brings tangible benefits.
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