If that is what any particular politician is counting on, they might be in for a surprise. I was in the supermarket last week before Shabbos, and I noticed that the prices of many food items had gone up. Specifically most of the vegetables. But they did not just increase by a few agurot or a shekel or two. They doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in price! Tomatoes were 6.99 NIS per kilo, sweet potatoes were 15.99 NIS per kilo being just two ridiculous examples.
The cashier made up some excuses about changing suppliers to explain why the prices have gone up so much and shrugged it off by pointing to the couple of items that hadn't gone up or even decreased in price.
The reason for the increase is due to a severe shortage in between seasons, and is only expected to be short-term. "Short-term" being up to a month.
With us heading into the summer vacation, and elections expected to be held right after the summer vacation, it will probably the renewed social protests that will set the tone for the elections. And with prices soaring on such basic vegetables like the Globes report says they will, the social protests will likely have a lot of material to work with, and will likely create a lot of momentum focusing the daily discussion on the cost of living.
With the recent increases to the price of gas, the continued high cost of housing, the various products that have been the focus of targeted protests over the past months (such as cheeses and candy bars), I think people are going to have their minds throughout the summer on the issues of the cost of living, and much less on Iran and the haredim.
To paraphrase President Bill Clinton, it's the price of tomatoes, stupid...
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Look, I'm actually not so up in arms about this. Fruits and vegetables are seasonal items. We are spoiled because we live in a pretty temperate climate, with numerous greenhouses and have come to expect year round fruits and vegetables- cucumbers and tomatoes, plentiful in all seasons. But there actually did used to be such a thing as "cucumber season"- around August I think. So I'm not really surprised that tomatoes have gone up now- they are all hothouse tomatoes, if you notice, and they are more expensive to grow then the standard field tomatoes. Fruits and veg take a tremendous amount of water to grow as well. And manual labor to tend and harvest them. And the farmer needs to make a profit to make it worth his while to grow. I don't really understand what the government is supposed to do about any of those factors. Pay the farmer's labor costs? Give him free water?
ReplyDeleteI dont know what the government is supposed to do. I dont know what kind of taxes are on veggies. It doesnt matter though. When this will peak, it will cause an uproar about the ridiculously high and increasing cost of living. it will be bundled with all the other cost of living issues. even if there is nothing the government can do about it
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, fruits and vegetables aren't taxed. And farmers already get a huge discount on water. I get that monopolies need to be broken up and the big conglomerates seem to be gouging the Israeli consumer. I just don't think farmers can be counted in the same category.
ReplyDeleteThe world is still reeling from a severe global financial meltdown. We were relatively insulated from it here, we haven't suffered the massive unemployment, currency devaluations, massive debt, unending home foreclosures and sundry economic nightmares other countries are suffering. The rise in commodity prices is hardly surprising.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard, I know, I'm not minimizing the difficulties, but I think they really need to be seen in context. I think it's foolish to imagine that we would get away scott free.
Abbi - all that being true, that reality is not going to stop the social protests coming this summer, just like they didnt last summer..
ReplyDeleteAbbi,
ReplyDeletethe question is not, could it be worse. The question is, could it be better?
I don't think anyone doubts that there are things the gov't could do, like break up monopolies and deregulation and the arguments over spending and corruption.
Could it be worse? Sure. But it could also be a whole lot better.
Rafi is right, summer is the time for protests because it isn't rainy and cold and the youngsters are all off from school.
ReplyDeleteBut if nobody can suggest ideas of what they want government to do, how will they choose a party with a platform of what they want done?
it will be the party that says what the protesters want to hear that will rake it in. I am guessing Yair Lapid. Maybe Shas a bit, but they will be seen more as opportunists. if the other parties keep fighting about the tal law and iran they will miss the boat and probably get punished.
ReplyDeleteand health insurance
ReplyDeleteWay, we had protests last summer and this September my 4 year old is going to gan for free. Americans protested last summer and exactly nothing changed there.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm not expecting my points to prevent any protests. I'm not sure anyone's even that afraid of protests, even Bibi. I think he handled last year's protests pretty effectively. Again, this isn't Greece or Spain dealing with austerity measures or massive unemployment. We had nice civilized protests- no Molotov cocktails were thrown, no shots were fired.
As for Lapid, Shas, that's really small potatoes. There's no one even close to popularity to Bibi and he knows it, which is why he's calling for early elections.
I agree Abbi. Netanyahu is a master at this, and nobody in the current field comes close to his level of stature in any respect. But I think even he will be surprised this summer and will have to focus on the economy and specifically cost of living.
ReplyDeleteAbbi, Just curious, is your gan an orthodox gan?
ReplyDeleteBecause secular gan, where my son goes, is not free. Just like the private secular school my older daughter goes to is not state subsidized yet..because if it were religious, both my kids would be free or heavily subsidized from day one (or pretty close to day one), as a private secular school it has to go through years of red tape (3 years and counting) before it can even apply for state funds.
So yes, the protests did get Netanyahu to offer more freebies to his voting bloc.
the decision to make gan for kids from age 3 free was for all gans of that age. not just religious, not just haredi, not just secular. all. doesnt matter what denomination.
ReplyDeleteobviously the school must be registered as an official school. any private gan that is not registered will not be free, doesnt matter if it is orthodox or secular, doesnt matter haredi or dati leumi. the free gan only applies in registered schools, no matter the denomination..
and subsidized schooling for schools above gan?
ReplyDeletecan you explain why a yeshiva which does not teach a core curriculum is free or heavily subsidized but a private secular school is not?
what the government can do is simple, well known and is almost hardly ever done: the department of agriculture can allow imports, simple as that. however, it won't do it because it doesn't want to upset the farmers, there is NO WAY that shelly is going to call for imports (the opposite, she opposes opening the food market), so get used to paying more, or not buying, or using ketchup as a substitute.
ReplyDeletethe school has to be registered. private schools charge tuition. In the orthodox world as well. registered private schools charge tuition btu are partially subsidized. I dont know about curriculum requirements. you can talk "core curriculum" all you want, but the government right now does not enforce that. That has nothing to do with whether or not a school receives funding at this point, for political reasons. The fact that an orthodox school does receive funding has nothing to do with why your school does not. I obviously dont know the status of your kids school, but if it is not receiving funding from the State it is, for whatever reason, not a registered school. Get ti registered (i am sure that takes time to get approve) and they will receive their subsidies. dont blame everything on the orthodox. tell your school administrators to get their act together.
ReplyDeleteIm not blaming the orthodox. The orthodox has political clout and uses it well. Good for them. But its not an even playing field. The rules to register for secular schools are wildly different than for a yeshiva to register.
ReplyDeleteThe same applies for shuls. The orthodox are responsible for who gets land and funding to build shuls... is it any wonder that conservative and reform, let alone atheist or humanist community centers, cant get funds?
But Im giving examples of how politicians game the system and spend money ineffectively and inequitably for the benefit of their constituents regardless of the effects it may have on other segments of society.
I expect every group to go for what they can get. This isn't about the 'orthodox'. I think a big part of the economic problem here, and hence the protests, is the politicians who only look out for their group. Israel is too small to be so segmented. Schooling is just one example where the rules governing the schools of an orthodox group are wildly different than the rules for secular.
Ben brings up imports as another example of polotics for a specific segment.
The list goes on and on....
Secular People, certainly me at least, are not against the orthodox. We simply want equality. I would like the same rules to apply equally. And that is the goal of social protests. If a yeshiva can register for subsidies easily than the same rules of registration should apply for secular schools. If you need x members to get money to build a shul, then the same rule should apply to build a humanist center. If you can import an item and compete and lower the cost of an item, there should not be a monopoly on who can import an item.
The social protests, and my point, is not anti-orthodox, but pro-equality and anti-corruption, segregation, discrimination and monopolies.
No red tape for new religious schools to register? Are you for real? Talk to Beverly Gribetz, a master teacher in Jerusalem and how much red tape and politics she had to wade through to get her religious girls' high school registered. Not sure if she was ever successful, but that's completely ridiculous that religious schools don't encounter red tape when starting new schools.
ReplyDeleteAs for wildly different rules, Orthodox gaming the system- that's not my experience here in Modiin. The democratic school here is thriving and the secular block the religious people (sometimes even physically) from starting new minyanim in existing ganim at every turn. There are Matnasim in every neighborhood here serving the needs of the secular community with chugim, lectures, after school care for all kids in the city. I fail to see how the secular aren't being served while the Orthodox are just raking it in here.
ReplyDeleteMisrad Hachinuch does not like private schooling. They made life very difficult for the semi-private school I sent my daughter to in Ranaana and they also make life difficult for the Torani Mamad I send my kids to now. (they won't allow more then two classes per grade, even though they get enough applicants to fill four. )
It sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder because of the diffculties you're having with this school. You aren't the first and you won't be the last.
Abbi, I don't know why you think I have a chip on my shoulder or that the orthodox are gaming the system. I said specifically that my problem is with narrowly focused and often corrupt politicians and Not the orthodox community of citizens.
ReplyDeleteIs there red tape for any school to get off the ground? Sure. But secular schools have far more red tape and much less funding. The same is true for an orthodox shul vs conservative, reform or humanist. Not for nothing that the majority of people in Israel are not orthodox but the majority of funding for private schools and private religious organizations are orthodox.
Its not a knock on orthodox people or their lifestyle to say that as a secular Israeli I want equality. I would like reform and conservative and humanist schools and centers to have to abide by the same rules as the orthodox to get funding and not a separate set of rules.
This is a knock on the polotics of division and segregation, not the people of any community.
And I followed it up specifically that the secular/religious funding issue was just one example, and that the issue follows through when it comes to imports and monopolies and housing and other issues that politicians use to fund narrow voting blocs and ends up dividing the country and raising the cost of living.
To state clearly for the record. I think everyone should follow whatever religion or non religion they want. All I want is for the politicians to create an equal playing field where the rules apply evenly, fairly and without giveaways to monopolies and narrow interests.
Abbi - and this September my 4 year old is going to gan for free.
ReplyDeleteIt's so nice that builders are building free gans and that the gannenot are willing to work for free! What a country!