Israel's not on the list
We have one of the latest Tax Freedom Days in the world (and 2013 was a good year - I've seen it into August in this country. And no, it's not just the Defense budget).
We have a business bureaucracy that's a mine field designed to pay coupons to certain entrenched elites. For example, sitting in Israel, it is significantly faster and cheaper to set up a corporation in Delaware or Nevada than it is in Israel - I do it often.
Value added tax of 17% (recently cut from 18%) makes goods and services much more expensive.
High real estate costs as a result of government ownership of nearly all the land in the country make housing costs sky high, especially in our major cities. Zoning rules that attempt to make all residences 'equal' mean that you cannot do what you wish with your private property.
A concentration of wealth in the hands of a few families means a stock market that is far from free trading and food costs that are totally out of line with the Western world.
A government that doesn't pay its bills in a timely manner leads to a culture where bills aren't paid in a timely manner. The same goes for making 'mistakes' and not owning them.
A tax system that has incentives for cheating and for a 'black' economy because the tax rates are so high means that those who are honest pay more.
I could go on and on - I live with this business environment daily... when I'm not working in the US.
Labels: Israeli economy
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:37 PM
2 Comments:
Maybe that's why the "elite" Israelis keep riding the bandwagon of the U.S. going farther and farther Left? They want a bigger playground? Ugh.
PS This is a very informative post.
This is what I found :
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.BUS.EASE.XQ
2013 2014
Israel 38 40
A lower number is better.
I don't know if it is the same list.
"Ease of doing business index (1=most business-friendly regulations)
Ease of doing business ranks economies from 1 to 189, with first place being the best. A high ranking (a low numerical rank) means that the regulatory environment is conducive to business operation. The index averages the country's percentile rankings on 10 topics covered in the World Bank's Doing Business. The ranking on each topic is the simple average of the percentile rankings on its component indicators."
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