Wednesday, November 19, 2008

21.7 Billion Shekel: Are You Kidding Me?

How do you like that. After being reassured by every economic leader in the country that the Israeli economy is a sea of tranquility and in no danger of recession, today we are treated to an economic recovery plan that comes with the price tag of 21.7 billion Shekel. I didn't think we had to 'recover' from anything.

Does anyone have an idea of where the treasury is going to come up with 21.7 billion? I have an idea, can you say higher taxes? Part of the plan calls for re-educating fired hi-tech workers and training them to be teachers. Huh? Why not give incentivize them to start new companies? Teachers? Does the treasury want to close the Israeli hi-tech industry? It makes no sense.

Funny that there is no mention of cutting our taxes, or trying to get the private sector to open new businesses. The government is planning on investing billions in order to 'create' jobs. As we are all aware the government has a hard time managing anything efficiently. How are they going to be able to manage public works projects? Just to name a few failed projects of recent memory we have, the Bridge of Strings in Jerusalem, the light-rail in Jerusalem, The bridge to nowhere in Modiin..feel free to add your favorite to the list.

Why do politicians think that they know how to spend our hard earned money better than we know how to? And why do some of us look to the government to solve our problems? Whatever happened to individual responsibility?

This economic recovery plan is a recipe for disaster, and with an election looming, the treasury will open up their purse strings in order to buy some votes. The only hope that we have is that they may have gotten a bit greedy in the plan. The plan also calls for enlistment of Hareidi boys into the IDF. This clause in itself may help shelf the plan.

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