With the tent protests against the high housing prices, and lack of affordable housing, increasing in intensity, it makes me wonder about their motivation.
The protests have turned to not just demanding a solution, which is something that is necessary, to calling for the resignation of the prime minister and his government.
I don't understand how that is a solution, or even a reasonable request. Do they think Netanyahu is at fault? Did the housing crisis appear suddenly, in the past 2.5 years since Netanyahu became prime minister?
A housing crisis, the likes of which under Israel suffers, is the result of many years of government policy. It does not happen suddenly, and no one prime minister or housing minister is at fault for the current situation..
So, if Netanyahu would resign today, would tens of thousands of new apartments suddenly appear throughout the country? The crisis is a result of problems that have crossed through multiple prime ministers and governments - work with the current prime minister, and the next, and the one after that, to solve it, to increase new housing starts, to release more land for construction, to improve mortgage qualifications for young couples, and other possible solutions.
I just don't see what calling for any specific person's resignation has to do with solving this crisis. And that makes me question the real motivation behind the protests.
1) This is a two edged sword. When a government spends 4 years developing a project and is then kicked out of occie 6 months before it comes to fruition, who gets the credit at the unveiling? The new government!
ReplyDeleteIt has to go the other way. If Ehud Olmert had somehow set something in motion while PM to bring down Tel Aviv housing prices but the priecs only dropped finally last year you can be damn sure that Netanyahu would take credit. So why should he take the blame instead?
2) What does a guy have to do to get on your blog roll?
1. I agree. It is difficult to assign blame to a specific government, or assign credit, for most issues. Sometimes things are clear and obvious that a result is directly from a specific action taken, but generally it is more complicated.
ReplyDeleteBut a housing crisis like Israel is suffering from is clearly something that did not happen overnight. It took many years, many governments, to get to this point.
2. just to ask. I dont even think of the blogroll anymore. i dont use it personally, and only occasionally look at it to get rid of some old blogs that are no longer in use. Ever since I started using google reader I stopped looking at the blogroll. i even tried to get rid of it completely once, but a number of readers told me they use it.
so if someone wants on, they usually have to ask. People ask, and I almost always put them on. I will add yours.
And it's not just government. When people all (okay, even half of all) want to live in the same general area, that area will always be expensive.
ReplyDelete