Sounds like you are describing how so many behave in UK, not just IL. However my experience of visiting IL is that over years social manners and respectful behaviour has improved, while in UK we are on a serious downward spiral. Our protestors are revolting!

The great achievements of the U.S. and Israel, in recent years, are largely due to our embrace of capitalism. Capitalism elevates. Socialism is piggish and it destroys every society where it is allowed to fester. The answer to Israel's housing problems, and all other economic problems, lies with capitalism. Not with the monstrous evil of socialism, which is nothing but an excuse for self designated elites to grab all the money and power for themselves.

All these people who like nothing better than to hang out on Sheinkin Street - and other gentrified areas - where real people used to live. Do they ever wonder about what happened to them??? Such phonies!!

The things you describe are very, very frustrating. However, most of the problems simply are a matter of civility. These are human problems and can be found in any society be it capitalist or socialist. The civil rules should be thought in school. As far as morality is concerned you are talking here about the eternal struggle of good vs evil. For centuries this has been a main subject of art and literature, religion, and education. I guess this struggle will only end with the arrival of the Moshiach. Untill then we all should do our best.

Yesterday my husband got into a taxi to go home, as he missed the infrequent bus. The driver said the fee was 40 shekels, to which my husband replied: "Please turn on the meter." Most of the way home the driver cursed " Bibi and the capitalists "--thoroughly indoctrinated with slogans and popular phrases. When he arrived home, the fee on the meter was 24 shekels. My husband couldn't resist telling the driver that while he curses the government & the capitalists he is trying to steal from his passengers! While this protest touches valid issues, too many people are simply like those described in this article.

for this article. it totally hits the nerve. how can we change this piggish behaviour?

Congratulations, Mr. Tidhar, Finally, somebody had the courage, the honesty, and the common sense to tell the truth. After reading all the eye-rolling nonsense in our papers, after seeing our so called "leaders" rushing to make quick political profit, your words are a gush of fresh and refreshing air. Just one supplement, you should ask the Rotschild Blv. settlers in expensive tents (donated by those who live in Zahala, Herzliah Pituach, and Savion): For how much do YOUR dad and mom rent their 3rd appartment to those who cannot afford it? Edgar Pick, Tel Aviv University

This is undoubtedly one of the better pieces of journalism that I have read on YNET for some time now

I'm sick of it. It's killing us. But it is a separate issue. The nation needs healing on many levels.

This list is both descriptive & comprehensive, & I cannot argue with it, even if it is satirically, socially, & sadly observant. However, there are people like this all over the world, & it is not due to capitalism. It is due to upbringing, ego, & fear. It is due to an inability to keep life in perspective; an overwhelming need to be a very important little fish in a very big pond; a fear of their own unimportance; & a fear of losing what little they have. There were Communist Politburo members who had dachas & drove Mercedes instead of Ladas. Every totalitarian &/or aristocratic society has them. Nothing to do with capitalism. There are also many, many phenomenally rich people who built businesses which employee 10's of 000's of people, are extraordinarily generous, establish foundations to help thousands of strangers, & live by "Nobliese oblige". Remember "Animal Farm"? Where "All animals are equal, but some equal more than others"? As examples, I have seen very good, hard working, principled people have their head completely turned by business success that seems to divorce them from what got them there, & somehow turn them into abusive, self important "gurus". I have seen middle aged women, with a good marriage (usually to a subservient guy!), a few healthy children, a nice house, & some financial security, turn into klaftot (shrews), lording herself over (often former) friends, & making snide comments to strangers. After all, "I have it all". I have also seen very poor, very generous, mutually supportive people-anyone who has traveled in 3rd World countries knows this, & you can find entire neighbourhoods of them in any big city. Nothing to do with capitalism or socialism-just humanity & life perspective. If anything, capitalism teaches you (often very, very, harshly) that there is ALWAYS someone bigger, stronger, richer, nastier, or more unprincipled out there, so it is very important to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, appreciate (& reciprocate) the structure, discipline, & stability of a society that protects you, affords opportunities beyond mere survival, & limits the totally rapacious. I think that the vast majority of the world recognises the negativity of Stultifying Socialism & the excesses of Law of the Jungle capitalism. You want it to be different? Healthy, constructive, fun? Stand up & don't let the idiot in line next to you to misbehave, abuse the clerk, or evade paying Vaad Biyat fees. Speak up. Act. Don't ignore. The Golden Rule works in both directions. I never liked the 60's hippies "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem"-too polar & polemic, but I always liked "Democracy (and civil society) is not a spectator sport!".

lets stop this self defeatist attitude. realize the gift hashem gave us and lets build and live and be strong am yisrael chai

Beautiful article. The real issue is forgeting about God. He is the one that created us all. He is the one who provides for us all. We have a duty to treat each other with respect and kindnessand to realize life is not about what we have it is about how we use what we have to help others.

Only through a truly free enterprise system can man have a chance at happiness and success. Only capitalism works-not perfectly, but only it works. Let the Europeans have there six or ten weeks of vacations each year as they count the days until the state will take care of them for the rest of their lives. Societies that want true happiness and success need Capitalism.

Fantastic article. However, things have got better over the years and will get better as more and more olim reach your shores and teach our brothers how 'it's really done'

This is one of the best articles that I have read in a long time. I am afraid that we have become arrogant, dishonest, spoiled chutzpanicks. We have to search our souls. We are rushing to become "Americans". Ziv, thank you for your article.

You've described a lot of bad behavior, but I don't see what some of it has to do with capitalism of any kind. Parking in a disabled spot when you aren't disabled is just plain piggish. It has nothing to do with capitalism.

Mr Tidhar, this is truely an excellent article,, should be read by all of us.

i WISH WE LISTEN AND TRY TO BEHAVE BETTER

Let's not go crazy here. Perhaps we could do better if we didn't have to constantly live on the edge of a sword. Perhaps if we didn't have one billion neighbors that seek our demise, we could pay a little more attention to manners. But we don't have that luxury, do we? We have to spend as much as we do on defense because there really are a lot of people out there that do not wish us well and want to see us disappear. And if it is a choice between being ill-mannered or disappearing, I'll take lousy manners, any time. We don't have a choice.

You Israelis have always had a real prima donna aspect to you, and now it's on full display. You are now whom you've always been, #16.

i do whatever the wrter said // would they lower the taxes or would i keep my job or easily find a job or a house or a cheap children school or university to my daughter ... sir do not mixe thing it is real not game or a play

This article outlines the new "generation of entitlement" which makes demands from others and refuses to meet personal obligations. Leftists ask - why do we live in a society that doesn't care for each other? Good question. Why do some protest in the streets demanding aid for THEIR problems with housing or daycare, but refuse to give basic human kindness to another person in a service job at Super Sal or Misrad Klita? Society is what we make it. In 1950 we didn't have anything more than basic kindness to give - no money, not a lot of food, hardly any clothes. In 2011, getting a subsidy for daycare isn't going to make people be nice to each other - it'll create more demands which help segment society.

I have to agree with so many of the author's observations. We could improve the quality of life here tremendously without paying a shekel if everyone would just behave better to one another. Life is not always a zero sum game.

This is one of the few list of posts in which most TBer's agree with the basic premise of an article.

I disagree. What's needed is a mix of Capitalism and Socialism (Bituach Leumi is socialism; just one example). The question is one of proportion.

It is not a priori that one has to choose between being ill-mannered or disappearing. One is not exclusive of the other. To say so, in my opinion, is a cop-out. Yes, there is more stress. But the author is also speaking of manners. (Think England during the Blitz.)

I generally disagree with articles/opinions printed on YNET, This however is so right on --absolutely beautiful. to #22--one way would be for these individuals who own multiple apartments to stop needing to make huge profits!! Foreigners are blamed for owning apartments BUT how many Israelis own more than one ( or two or three)

A good place to start would be to cut the cash flow to Gaza. Why should Israel be responsible for the care and feeding of the Strip? Let the Egyptians succor their brother Arabs. We can cut off the free fresh water and free electricity to Gaza, as well. The money thus saved would be enough to fund a generous housing subsidy for every Israeli who needs one.