Sorry for the prolonged silence - the jet lag got to me today. I arrived back in Israel shortly after 5:00 am and have been struggling to remain awake....
For years now, Israel's bar association - membership in which is mandatory if you want to practice law here - has been struggling with lawyers like me who complain about the level of bar dues. My bar dues in Israel are more than double what the dues are in New York - the other jurisdiction in which I am admitted to practice.
I just got an email from the chair of the Jerusalem District Bar Association informing me of the wonderful news that the bar has 'solved' my problem. If I move my bank account to Bank Leumi and meet certain unspecified criteria, the bank will give me a 'grant' that is equivalent to my bar dues. If I were a big firm lawyer whose bar dues are paid by the firm, that money would go to my pocket; since I'm not, the money will go to the bar.
But let's get real: If I'm not paying the bar dues, and the bank sure isn't going to really pay the bar dues, who is? You guessed it: The ordinary people who are customers of Bank Leumi. In other words, the people subsisting on NIS 7,000 per month and less are going to subsidize a bunch of lawyers - many of whom make an awful lot of money - so that they won't complain about the bar's spending.
What's worse is that the organized bar is probably one of (if not THE) most wasteful organizations in the country. A big chunk of our bar dues goes to pay for 'social and cultural events' that are attended by a relatively small number of lawyers - mostly from the elites.
Yet another reason for all of you to hate lawyers.
For those who read Hebrew, you can find the district bar's letter here. Disgraceful.
Welcome to Animal Farm, where all the animals are equal except for the ones who are more equal.
Why Israelis pay 25% more than the OECD average for produce
When the OECD accepted Israel as a member, they might not have realized that they were accepting the only currently socialist country in the West (the US appears to be headed in that direction as well). Israelis pay 25% more than the OECD average for fruits and vegetables - a statistic that will not surprise most Israelis - because of the Soviet-like market structure that prevents competition in that area.
“Israel is a sort of multi-branched ‘Soviet Union’ when it comes to
agriculture,” he explained.
Thirteen agricultural lobbies such as the
Honey Production and Marketing Board and the Dairy Products Board “turn
Israel into one big cartel, with no real competition,” he accused.
Large corporation such as Tnuva and Strauss manage to “trample” small
competitors, and to make it nearly impossible for new players to enter
the market, he warned.
The latest data “was completely predictable, and matches the non-competitive market conditions in Israel,” he continued.
The solution is simple, Whiteman explained, “Cancel all of the
agricultural boards and the cartel-like regulation that comes with them,
end the protective quotas that prevent – or at least restrict –
imports, and create a free market.”
However, he continued, “All this is fairly simple in principle, but
very difficult to implement politically speaking, given the opposition
from various parties with a strong interest in maintaining the status
quo – at the expense of the populace, and of the poor in particular.”
“One cannot help but be depressed at the government’s weakness in the
face of these parties, Tnuva and Strauss in particular,” he added.
“Instead of protecting our interests, our elected officials try to
distract us… Minister of Agriculture Yair Shamir and Finance Minister
[Yair] Lapid put a price limit on cream cheese, as if that’s what will
bring respite to the public, and [Economics] Minister [Naftali] Bennett,
who energetically promotes reform and market competition, is silent;
apparently he mustn’t anger his ‘brother’ Lapid.”
I'm so glad we have Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett working together for our benefit. What could go wrong?
Kitty Werthmann is a WW2 survivor. She is 87 years old and is President
of the South Dakota Eagle Forum. Werthmann lived under Nazi rule through
the war, and strongly feels the need to warn Americans about the
horrors of socialism. Werthmann said that Adolf Hitler spoke just like
an American politician. She says: When the people fear the government,
that's tyranny, but when the government fears the people, that's
Liberty! Sighting Switzerland's policy where citizens are required to
own guns, Hitler did not attempt to invade the country and it has not
been involved in a war for 600 years. Kitty advocates: 'Keep your guns.
Keep your guns, and buy more guns! and stock up on ammo because: "What
good is a gun without ammunition?"
Let's go to the videotape. More comments after the video.
What bothered me about this video is that there is no mention of Jews - the word "Jew" isn't even spoken. There's one small reference at the end that claims that they didn't know about the concentration camps - let's say I find that difficult to believe.
The Austrians are masters at turning themselves into Hitler's victims when in fact they were quite complicit in the slaughter of Jews.
While her depiction of socialism may be (and probably is) accurate, her failure to acknowledge the special role of Jews as Hitler's victims left a bad taste in my mouth.
Israel Electric Company to become Sabbath observant?
It has long been the case that in communities that follow the rulings of Rabbi Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz (the Chazon Ish), inhabitants have private communal generators for the Sabbath rather than use electricity produced by the Israel Electric Company, whose employees are overwhelmingly Jewish. The Electric Company's unions balked at the notion of their employees - who are among the highest paid in the country at their regular salaries - being replaced by non-Jews, because work on the Sabbath draws triple pay.
Now, due to automation, there may no longer be a need for Israel Electric Company employees to work on the Sabbath. The Israel Electric Company may become Sabbath observant (Hat Tip: Aryeh Z).
The automation process has actually
been underway for several years, but new technology, such as the use of
smart meters, has enabled the company to speed up the process, to the
extent that Sabbath electricity generation could be fully automated as
soon as a year from now.
The automation process is being
supervised by several rabbinical organizations, such as the Tzomet
group, which examines the halachic implications of technological issues.
An IEC spokesperson said that
theoretically the automation process could be applied to the rest of the
week as well. However, the spokesperson said, that was not on the
agenda, so long as the IEC was still a government-controlled company,
with its primary interest not necessarily the profit motive, but
improving the lives of Israelis wherever possible.
Ah yes, that good old socialist ethos. You didn't expect your electric bill to go down (it's gone up 30% in the last year), did you?
If you're an Israeli, would you rather work at the Electric Company or at Intel? All the non-Israelis probably answered Intel, but Israelis know they'd rather work at the Electric Company, if only they could get in. Combine high salaries, free electricity (which powers everything in your house) and job security protected by the Histadrut (best described for you Americans as an alliance between the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters and the mob), and you have 'work conditions' that cannot be beat. Not even by Intel?
IEC and Intel seem like very different companies, but there
are also striking similarities: Both are very large - the IEC employs
nearly 13,000 workers, while Intel Israel has 9,000; both have offices
or installations around the country; both are established companies and
offer excellent employment terms; both try not to fire employees,
offering some certainty in a tumultuous job market.
But
Intel is a private company, and when it announced that it would not be
firing workers during the global financial crisis in 2009, it paid the
price out of its own pocket. IEC employees, on the other hand, have
their jobs protected thanks to collective wage agreements and aggressive
unions, which make it very hard for management to fire workers. Intel
is a profitable international firm that lives on innovation and sales;
the IEC is a local, government-owned company with a massive NIS 72
billion deficit, and some of that debt will be borne by the public due
to lack of choice, through higher power prices.
Intel
doesn't publish its salary data, but it's fair to assume that workers
are paid well. It also offers lots of attractive benefits, including
letting employees work from home one day a week, and a program that lets
new mothers return to work gradually.
Conditions
at the IEC, in comparison, make headlines. A report by the Finance
Ministry salary director from the beginning of the year reported that
the average wage there is NIS 30,000 a month, while managers average NIS
80,000. Add to this benefits like free electricity, handsome pensions
and job security, and it's clear why workers rank this company on top.
"So
what if we don't like that company?" said one high-tech worker who
wants to get hired at the IEC. "You can't buy food with love."
That
sentiment also applies to the Ashdod Port, which ranked 30 on the list.
The port has been making headlines itself lately due to repeated
strikes, rampant nepotism, near total union control and massive salaries
(navigators earn NIS 70,000 a month). Despite all this - or maybe
because of it - it shot up nine places from last year's ranking, placing
it well above companies including food manufacturer Osem (42) and
high-tech company Verint (46). The lesson is clear - it's fun to cluck
our tongues at aggressive unions, but it's even more fun to be protected
by them.
The
rankings were based on surveys with tens of thousands of workers and
corporate statistics for the 12 months that ended in March 2013. The
surveyors started with a sample of 2,000 employees, asking them what
they valued in a workplace. They then conducted a broader survey,
weighing the results against what workers said they valued in the
initial survey.
The
surveyors also conducted internal surveys at more than 60 companies, as
well as among university students and manpower company managers.
The surveys were conducted over the course of a year and in locations around the country.
Note that the article doesn't say which company won. Last year, it was Intel. This year?
But what does it say about our economy when two of the top three places to work are 'government companies' that provide astronomical salaries and ridiculous job security on the public dole? Welcome to the socialist paradise.
All you Americans who voted to go socialist, listen up. This is the sort of thing to which you can look forward.
Meet the Israel Electric Company. The Israel Electric Company is our national utility - nearly everyone gets their electricity from Israel Electric. It's a 'government company,' which means that the government is the largest shareholder in it. In the case of the Electric Company, the government owns 99.85%.
Israel Electric has two distinguishing factors: First, its employees are among the highest paid in the country, with an average monthly salary of NIS 24,025, or a bit more than $6,000 per month (not counting benefits) at today's exchange rate. Second, in addition to its relatively high salaries, Israel Electric gives another huge benefit: free electricity. No, not 1,000 kilowatt hours per month free or something like that, but totally free, unlimited electricity. So no gas or oil in those people's houses. All 12,489 of them.
And there's a third distinguishing factor: They're going broke (link in Hebrew). With an existing debt of NIS 65 billion, it seems that Israel Electric has negative cash flow of NIS 1.4 billion, and is demanding that the government - which has allowed Israel Electric to raise its rates by 30% this year - kick in NIS 1-1.5 billion to 'fix' its balance sheet. And no, they're not willing to give up anything in return. Not even the free electricity for all 12,489 employees or any part of it. So the Finance Ministry is refusing to bail them out.
Back in the 1940's, George Orwell wrote a book called Animal Farm, in which the animals did fine being equal until some decided they wanted to be more equal than the others. That's when things fell apart.
Here in Israel, some animals have been more equal than the others for a long time, and that's why many of us have been fighting to get rid of the vestiges of socialism. Israel Electric Company is now an anomaly in our economy. Most of the other government companies were privatized, at least to some extent, a long time ago.
But by 2016, there may be lots of Israel Electric Company's in the US economy, with thousands of employees who believe that they are more equal than everyone else. And then you can pay tax rates like ours too - we are consistently the last, or one of the last, countries to reach Tax Freedom Day each year.
The picture above is from page 17 of Sheldon Adelson's Israel HaYom, which is distributed for free here in Israel (I haven't been out of the neighborhood all day so I didn't get one).
Thomas Peterffy grew up in socialist Hungary. Despite the fact that he
could not speak English when he immigrated to the United States in 1956,
Thomas fulfilled the American dream. With hard work and dedication, he
started a business that today employs thousands of people. In the
1970s, Thomas bought a seat on the American Stock Exchange. He played a
key role in developing the electronic trading of securities and is the
founder of Interactive Brokers, an online discount brokerage firm with
offices all over the world.
Think about this before you go out to vote on November 6.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
