Argentina held parliamentary elections on Sunday. Like many others following the elections, I was disappointed to see that the party tied to Donald Trump’s chainsaw-wielding friend, Javier Milei, won the most seats. Milei waved his chainsaw as a symbol of his plans to destroy Argentina’s welfare state.

While it is disappointing to see Milei, who seems both inept and corrupt, win the election (with a boost from a $40 billion loan from Trump’s Treasury Secretary), it is understandable that Argentina’s voters would turn in this direction. The prior left-wing governments had not managed the economy well, leaving triple digit inflation. 

The full story is complicated. The I.M.F. seemed determined to deliberately sabotage the government, but ignoring the specifics, Argentinians had reason to be unhappy with the results from left-leaning governments, even if they aren’t fans of Milei’s chainsaw approach.

But without getting into the details of Argentina’s recent history, progressives should not be in the situation of fighting the market to get progressive outcomes. The right is constantly rigging the market to redistribute more income upward. If progressives allow this rigging to go unchecked, it will be virtually impossible to make society fair and decent through tax and transfer measures. It is essential to challenge the rules that cause the market to generate extremes of inequality.

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