Israel is an example of a country where there is a need to confront government spending.
The cooperation of the public sector is essential to the success of an economic plan to cut spending, said Treasury wage director Yuval Rachlevsky on Tuesday.
…”The only way of getting the economy out of the quagmire is by lowering public sector wages,”said Rachlevsky.
When I visited Israel a few months ago, I came away with a sense that country faces acute supply-side macroeconomic problems. I wrote that “My guess is that of all these issues, the most important to address is labor costs in the public sector and the unionized sector.”
For Discussion. Are cuts in public sector wages likely to be achievable politically?
READER COMMENTS
David Thomson
Mar 14 2003 at 5:51am
Arnold Kling should be very worried about Israel’s future. I strongly believe that Socialism is an intellectual virus which destroys a society from within. It eviscerates the ability to think clearly—and realize that you are in danger. The victim of the Socialist virus is similar to the proverbial frog who is utterly unaware that he is being slowly boiled alive. Have you ever tried to talk sense to a junkie who needs his fix?
To be brutally frank, the Islamic terrorists may be far less of a threat to Israel’s future than that posed by the well meaning Socialists. Does anyone doubt me? In that case, please take a serious look at the current economic decline of the Old European nations like France and Germany. Also, the Socialists of Israel are greatly responsible for the Oslo disaster. They perceive human nature as innately good and therefore were incapable of acknowledging that they were being suckered by Yassir Arafat and the other Palestinian militants dedicated to the proposition that the state of Israel should not exist. It is ridiculous to ignore the harsh reality that the at least metaphorical reality of Original Sin is alive and well on planet Earth.
Nadav Ben-Ami
Nov 13 2003 at 2:56am
Excuse me for interupting, but you have know knowledge of GENUINE SOCIALISM and the post-“state-capitalist” movement against Stalinist perversion of “socialism”. I would study more on GENUINE SOCIALISM before spewing your capitalist, racist, PRO-ZIONIST APARTHEID crap! Yes, I am Jewish also, but heavily against the ZIONIST-NAZI regime of Ariel Sharon and his nazi cronies… If I had my way.. I would bring about a movement of the working class of both Israelis and Palestinians wanting to acheive an everlasting peace in the region by overthrowing the ruling statist regime(Ariel Sharon), and the installing of a true society for the Middle East, FOR THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE. No, this is not Soviet communism, No! this is not Stalinist state-capitalism, and CERTAINLY no! this is not a dictatorship. THIS IS DEMOCRACY! ISRAEL under Sharon is nothing more than a FASCIST apartheid state with the ultimate goal of DESTROYING the Palestinian people and fowarding anti arab policies.
Shalom
Nadav Ben-Ami
PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS!
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