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Fifth of wage earners below poverty line
Tani Goldstein
Published: 16.12.07, 09:04
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9 Talkbacks for this article
1. so what do we do?
N/A ,   N/A   (12.16.07)
I work for a major law firm in TLV. About 100 people total work here. My boss makes about $2mil/mo. That's right. $2 million a month, and our profit margin is growing. How much do we little people make?? Less than $1,500/mo. That's less then the Nat'l Avg! Recently someone asked for a raise and got canned!!! So what can we do? I don't see how the economy is progressing. Do you?
2. So what??? If you learn more you earn more.
(12.16.07)
Plan and simple. Why does everything always have to be black and white? The whites are supposed to feel sorry for the blacks? Improve yourselves and fight to be heard!
3. More for welfare less for settlements
GM   (12.16.07)
It's time to set our priorities straight. As long as there are blood-sucking leaches who live in the settlements outside Israel, there will be poor people within Israel.
4. misuse of statistics
Geoff ,   Jerusalem   (12.16.07)
The calculation of the poverty line is based on the average wage. In calculating any average, there will always be those who are below and those who are above, that is what makes the "average". It is completely ridiculous to try and claim that 20% below the line is a scandal - by definition there will always be those below the line if the line is calculated not as true poverty but rather as relative to others.
5. IN ORDER TO FIGHT POVERTY, GOVT MUST UP EDUCATION SO FOREIGN
MOSHE ,   US   (12.16.07)
BUY MORE ISRAELI GOODS & SERVICES. THAT IS ONE WAY TO REDUCE POVERTY. ANOTHER WAY IS TO KICK arubs OUT OF ISRAEL. THEN JEWS WILL DECREASE THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS IN ISRAEL. LESS WELL EDUCATED JEWS WILL LEAVE. AND THE LAST WAY IS TO REDUCE WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT SPENDING, WHICH IMPLIES REDUCING INCOME TAXES. MOSHE
6. Half-truths & a political agenda.
Terry ,   Eilat, Israel   (12.16.07)
It is undeniable that our politicians don't give a damn about anyone except themselves & their friends. It is also undeniable that our educational system is disasterous & will not lift future generations out of poverty as would normally be the case. But this report is based on half-truths with a definite left-wing agenda. It is more of an exercise in propaganda than a scientific analysis. It ignores life-style choices made by the individual, removing even a semblance of individual responsibility for poverty. It blames "society" for inconvenient realities - it is no secret that we do not get along well with Arabs. Their own life-style, their own self-segregation, their own hostility towards us, is just an unfortunate fact of life. There is a similar problem with Haredim who are also self-segregating, do not obtain a secular education, & whose life-style choices create their own poverty. There have been a number of articles recently on the disasterous effect of our dysfunctional political system on economic development. The fact that we cannot seem to reform the educational system is the prime example. Our bureaucratic socialist state stifles the economy. Red-tape abounds. Monopolies & oligarchy choke economic growth, banks being the prime example of this phenomenon. We pay more & get worse service because of a lack of competition in key sectors. Even something as mundane as supermarkets are a good example. Compare our supermarkets to European or American supermarkets. The comparison is not very flattering. Populist measures will not cure our society's ills - actually, most of the problems have their origin in left-wing failed ideology. We need major overhaul of our political system but there is no real public support among our generally apathetic citizens.
7. The Israeli economy is rigged against ordinary people
(12.16.07)
We need a true free market economy in Israel, not the current twisted pre-1967 planned wartime economy.
8. #1: I would say
Global Citizen ,   Israel & USA   (12.16.07)
share names of companies that do this so we can just not give them our business, but will that mean you will lose the job you have? Or is it still a good thing? It seems like leaders are needed who can safely tread that very thin line between a free market (American-style corruption) and a repressive version of Socialism, to return Israel to the functional Socialist system she initially had.
9. 1: Why don't you try thanking and praising God
Rivkah   (12.17.07)
that you make more than 90% of the people on earth? Why aren't you thankful that a lawyer is skillful enough to bring enough money to pay 99 workers? Why don't you thank God you have a job when so many are unemployed? Why don't you go to night school to become a lawyer so you can find out how hard it is to support yourself as an attorney, much less 99 other people.
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