Hoppe’s High-Time-Preference Meltdown Over Javier Milei

Libertarian Civil War: Hans-Hermann Hoppe Turns His Guns on Javier Milei

Hans-Hermann Hoppe's purity spiral over Javier Milei reveals a movement more obsessed with theory than victory — while Argentina's president fights inflation, terrorism, and socialism in the real world.

By Austin Petersen

When Hans-Hermann Hoppe sneered that "Milei is no hero," he probably thought he was defending the integrity of libertarian thought. Instead, he exposed how detached a certain wing of the movement has become from the real world.

Hoppe accused Javier Milei of betraying libertarianism by keeping Argentina's central bank open, by working with bankers, and worst of all, by supporting Israel. To him, those are disqualifying sins. The philosopher who once joked about "physically removing" bad libertarians now wants to exile the only sitting head of state trying to apply free-market principles in the middle of a collapsed economy.

The irony is delicious. The man who lectures everyone about low-time-preference patience just lost his own. Argentina has been buried under socialist rot for decades, and when a genuine reformer starts digging it out, Hoppe rushes to condemn him because the cleanup isn't pure enough for the classroom. That's not discipline. That's panic.

The spat began in early 2024 after Milei announced his intent to move Argentina's embassy to Jerusalem. Hoppe's followers online erupted. Forums filled with screeds about "globalism," "Zionism," and "betrayal of neutrality." Milei didn't blink. He stood in Jerusalem later that year, said "Am Yisrael Chai," and pledged his Genesis Prize award to fight antisemitism. He knows what moral clarity looks like, and he knows where Argentina stands.

Argentina has seen its share of Islamist terrorism. The 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires killed 85 people. Hezbollah was behind it. The Iranians helped plan it. This isn't abstract geopolitics to Argentines. When Milei backs Israel, he isn't virtue-signaling. He's acknowledging a hard truth about the world he governs.

Hoppe's outrage spread quickly. Libertarian outlets ran pieces echoing his attack, claiming Milei had "abandoned principle." Others pushed back. Walter E. Block, Hoppe's longtime friend and ally, published his Rejoinder to Hoppe on Israel vs. Hamas, accusing him of distorting libertarian ethics. Block argued that defending Israel's right to self-defense is consistent with property rights and self-ownership, not a violation of them. The split was complete. Hoppe stormed out of advisory boards. His followers doubled down.

Meanwhile, Milei kept working. Inflation that had screamed past 250 percent began to ease. Government spending dropped by 13 percent of GDP. The budget moved toward balance for the first time in more than a decade. Every indicator still looks rough, but for the first time in years, it's moving the right way.

Hoppe claims Milei's reforms are "cosmetic." Argentina's poor might disagree. For them, any drop in prices, any paycheck that holds value for a full week, feels like oxygen. Hoppe wants textbook perfection; Milei wants people to eat.

In Davos, Milei told the global elite, "The Western world is in danger because those who are supposed to defend it have been co-opted by a vision of collectivism." The crowd fidgeted. He didn't care. He delivered the same message he gives at home: liberty is moral, socialism is evil, and compromise with statism only spreads the disease. That line carried further than Hoppe's entire body of work will this decade.

What makes Hoppe's tantrum so revealing is that he once taught that civilization depends on low-time-preference behavior, on patience, prudence, and long-range thinking. Yet his reaction to Milei shows the opposite. He demands instant purity, instant outcomes, and instant adherence to his private creed. He's judging a wartime president by peacetime metrics.

Argentina is clawing back from economic ruin, political corruption, and ideological decay. It finally has a leader quoting Mises and Rothbard on television, translating free-market ideas into the language of the street. If that man isn't "libertarian enough" for Hoppe, then libertarianism is in worse shape than Argentina's peso.

Hoppe's old "physical removal" line was meant as satire about keeping collectivists out of libertarian enclaves. Now it applies better to him. The movement has to remove the habits that keep it sterile, snobbery, purism, cowardice. Milei has flaws, but he's moving the ball forward. Hoppe's faction is still arguing about what color the ball should be. "Cafe Libertarios," as they are called in Argentina.

The truth is simple. Argentina doesn't have the luxury of theory. Its people have endured decades of leftist plunder, terrorism, and inflation that wiped out savings overnight. Milei is cutting through the wreckage with whatever tools he can find. That is what leadership looks like when the math and the morals both matter.

Hoppe had decades to sell liberty from the podium. Milei has months to save a country. One is writing manifestos. The other is making history.

And if Hans-Hermann Hoppe can't see that, perhaps it's time for him to be physically removed from relevance.