Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: A qualcuno, la guerra eterna conviene

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/yossi_melman/2007/12/equalitys_last_gasp_in_israel.html
Equality's Last Gasp in Israel
Globalization's influence on Israel is rarely mentioned in the
international media but is of great interest to the Israeli public -
far more than Iran or the troubles with the Palestinians. The trends
of globalization -the taking over of state assets by Israel's "Robber
Barons", the widening gap between rich and poor and the widespread
corruption at all levels of society - are affecting our daily life for
the worse.
The results are that Israeli society has changed beyond recognition.
Israel was once a role model, one of the world's most advanced and
sophisticated social democracies, proud of its modern welfare system
and trying to maintain as equal and just a society as possible.
The kibbutz--a rural community guided by the principle that each
receives according to his needs and give back to society according to
his abilities--was the jewel in Israel's crown. Today, the idea of the
kibbutz is dying.
Israel now worships the golden calf of the free market: privatization
and sink-or-swim competition, what British Prime Minster Edward Heath
once called the "ugly face of capitalism." The country's economy is
under the influence of a handful of families who, like robber barons,
rob public assets, utilities and national resources, all with the help
of corrupt officials and ministers.
To understand how the country's wealth is concentrated in few hands,
one has to read the Israeli business daily The Marker. The paper
estimated the accumulated wealth of the 500 richest people in the
country to be around 300 billion shekels (US $75 billion). By
contrast, Israel's GDP is 567 billion shekels (US$130 billion). Israel
is now on the Top Ten list of nations with the widest socio-economic
gap. Pensions have been reduced. Social security benefits have been
cut. In 2005-7, Israel produced more millionaires per capita than any
other country. But it also pushed more people back beneath the poverty
line than any other western nation in the last decade.
Israel's Social Security Institute defines the poverty line as an
income of 1,744 shekels (US$400) per month per individual, or 4,361
shekels (US$1100) per family of four. One and half million people, or
20 percent of the population, live under the poverty line. That means
that thirty-four percent of Israeli children live in poverty.
Fewer and fewer financial resources are allocated to public education,
health, transportation and infrastructure. More and more go to the
wealthy through tax cuts and other benefits aimed to protect capital
gains.
Israel is still a vital democracy, but it is a democracy in decay. The
champions of social justice and rational distribution of national
wealth - the fighters of corruption - struggle to swim upstream.
Israel in 2007 has further lost its old ideals and its soul.

 
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/yossi_melman/2007/12/eq.
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nahum, hai già un lavoro per quando finiranno i soldi per i
neoarrivati? No, perchè a sentire Logi sono cazzi amari...

 neoarrivati? No, perchè a sentire Logi* sono cazzi amari...
Torrieri, ovviamente....