Just over a year into President Javier Milei's radical experiment in Argentina, his government boasts of an economic miracle: a record fiscal surplus, a stronger currency, and surging market optimism. But behind these numbers lies a brutal truth. Milei's program—one of the most austere in history and cheered on by figures of the global far right—is tearing apart Argentina's social fabric and democratic institutions, leaving millions in deepening poverty and despair.

The cost of this "miracle" is paid by children who go to underfunded schools, pensioners who can't afford medication, and women escaping domestic violence only to find state-run shelters closed.

The government's much-celebrated fiscal achievements are funded by gutting institutions meant to sustain human life. Today, more than half of Argentina's population lives below the poverty line, according to the Catholic University of Argentina. This is a direct result of Milei's devaluation of the Peso and cuts to government funding. Over the past year, tens of thousands of government workers have been dismissed. Food assistance to tens of thousands of families has been cut off. The Ministry of Women, Genders, and Diversity was eliminated. Education budgets have been slashed by 70 percent in real terms, threatening to shut down iconic public universities like the University of Buenos Aires.

Meanwhile, Milei and other top government officials gave themselves a 48 percent salary increase last year. The government also quietly shipped several tons of gold reserves to the United Kingdom as financial collateral, sparking outrage in a country still haunted by the colonial wound of the Malvinas/Falklands. Sovereignty, it seems, is now a tradable asset.

But........

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