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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Only in Israel: Why the milk was sour

This morning, one of my daughters went to the makolet (small grocery store) to buy milk. Normally, we only get 1% fat (the lowest there is in much of Israel) milk in this house, but this morning she came home with three 1% bags and two 3% bags. I poured myself a cup of coffee and added some 1% milk. It was sour.

I took it back to the makolet and the owner told me to go take two more bags (I took back the second bag that had the same date as the sour one). I went into the refrigerator and there was no 1% milk. So I went back to the owner and asked if he has any. He said that 'it's a problem' because there was no milk delivery this morning.

And why was there no milk delivery this morning? It seems that Tnuva, the national dairy monopolist, has a company outing today and therefore there is no milk delivery anywhere. Or at least anywhere in or around Jerusalem. No warning, no announcement - after all, we wouldn't want people hoarding....

I happen to believe that if you're a monopolist with a basic staple product (is there any other kind?), you have no right to shut down your business on a workday. But another daughter, who is probably my most Israeli child, responded "they deserve an outing." Huh? At least if there's no emergency, you don't shut down a monopolist business without leaving someone to cover - even if you have to pay them extra.

PS: Said daughter works for an Israeli high tech company that was bought out by a large US company. She's part of start-up nation. 

Socialism - which is a dirty word in the US outside of the core of the Democratic party, and in much of Europe - is still alive and well here in Israel. If you want to know the reason behind our constant brain drain here, that's where I'd look for it.

/rant.

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4 Comments:

At 2:37 PM, Blogger Shy Guy said...

I have no problem with Tnuva having a day off.

I have a problem with their products going off.

 
At 2:56 PM, Blogger Sunlight said...

The problem is that "socialism" is no longer a dirty word among a huge %% the U.S., where it is presented in President Obama's endless riff about things being "fair." And his definition of "fair" is no one earning, learning, or achieving beyond the least performance level. It would be great to have someone in Start Up Nation to write essays or a book about the value of socialism in emergency situations, but its failure in long term group retention (and nutrition) and its utter failure in scaling up to a nation (7 mil) and OMG large nations (100s of mils). I'd like to read about your milk situation, your healthcare situation, etc. What works, for how long, and what is sinking. The thing to remember about the US is that the new left marcuse progressive "Democratic" Party has been in charge of the schools/universities for decades and the brainwash has been done. By supporting the Obama Dictatorship in elections, Israelis are deleting the need for a brain drain. Hopefully that hasn't been a driver... because along with removing the destination for Euro, Israeli, etc. brain drains, it will remove the entire market for what the brains come up with.

 
At 4:24 PM, Blogger InMemoryOf Yossi said...

Very well said, both Carl and Sunlight.
I cried when BO was reelected. I feel that we have lost our core values ... If you work hard, you will succeed. People no longer want to work hard. They want it handed to them on a silver platter. I think also that there are a lot of distractions ... Facebook, video games, movies. Why work when you can play.
It's very sad.

 
At 1:20 AM, Blogger Empress Trudy said...

As they used to say in the 3CP "We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us!"

 

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