Poll: Nearly 50% of Israelis fear state pushing them into poverty
Survey finds 25% of respondents have cut spending in past year, including on food and medications.
By Dana Weiler-Polak Tags: financial crisis Israel newsAbout half of the public is concerned that government policies will force them into poverty while only a quarter of the population expresses a sense of security about their economic situation, according to a survey conducted by the Forum to mark International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The day is being marked around the world today, and, at the initiative of the forum, a coalition of social welfare organizations, the day is being officially recognized in the Knesset.
The survey polled 500 Israelis. A quarter of those questioned had cut their spending in the past year, including some people who had reduced outlay on food and medications.
Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed said the blame for poverty cannot be placed exclusively on the poor, and that the government has a responsibility to help the poor escape the cycle of poverty.
"I have great hopes that cabinet members and members of the Knesset will lend an ear to people living in poverty," said forum member Roni Strier of the social work school at Haifa University. "It's an opening for new discourse," Strier said, "to be based on a partnership recognizing the human rights [of the poor] and their needs and difficulties. Only such dialogue ... will, on the one hand. contribute to strengthening their capabilities and their departure from the margins [of society] and, on the other, will restore public trust in the government and its policies in order to reduce poverty ...."
According to a follow-up report submitted to the Knesset Finance Committee this week by the Israeli Center for Social Justice, the government is not implementing its socioeconomic decisions. The report surveyed implementation of a plan announced in August 2007 by the government of former prime minister Ehud Olmert and subsequently approved by the Netanyahu government.
The plan's two goals for 2010, involving increasing the rate of employment and reducing poverty, included devoting resources to occupational training, expanding the availability of day care and making transportation accessible, especially for the underemployed in certain segments such as the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors. Although the plan was announced more than two years ago, there has been no systematic follow-up on its implementation. According to the Economic Arrangements Bill that accompanied the state budget, it was decided to defer the target date for fulfilling the plan until 2013 - although the provision was not debated.
The Israeli Center for Social Justice report said the rise in employment during the first year of the program was attributable to the rapid growth of the economy at the time and not implementation of the plan. The report also says: Poverty is growing.
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What are the basis of our social welfare reform programs beside health insurance. Are we helping to raise the generations with supplemental maybe food at groceries like the American Food Stamp Program. The only problem there is at 8 dollars an hour a mother with one child cannot get food assistance she makes to much in gross income. Here she pays 400 dollars a month for child care she pays 300 to 560 for two bedroom flat rented she has a car payment ranging from 150 -300 dollars a month. She can't afford insurance for herself and the list goes on. So for 8 dollars and hour she starves while her kids get free lunch at school. How do we keep our children and mothers and single fathers safe with income and food rights. These are our next leaders. Rankoo- (Karoon)
The "circle of poverty" is not caused by the government. A simplified circle is: low income causes low savings, which causes low investment, which causes low returns, which causes low income "Low investment" means low level of investment in education or businesses. It can also mean that banks are unwilling to make loans because of insufficient deposits and no matching funding. Blaming the poor for being poor is (quite frankly) nonsense.
Government taxes people into poverty, because it needs money to fight poverty. Talk about cycles!
For every qualifying child that is born in Israel or the USA, the governments should deposit $4,000 or the equivalent in an interest bearing trust account that they cannot touch until they are 55 or 65. There could also be a requirement for families that make above say $70,000 to $80,000 a year to deposit this money into an account prior to the birth of a child themselves. The compound interest at 4% to 8% accumalated monthly and annually within 50 to 60 years would eliminate most poverty among those reaching retirement ages. The people who are alive now have no choice but to limit their spending and reduce their debt. Most people don't do this but their numbers are increasing which makes it increasingly harder for other sectors such as merchandising. Oh well. That's all I know for now.
I do not think it is always the case. The government can help but it really starts with the individual and their choices. Hard work ethic, motivation, choices, adaptability, motivation, ambition, all gear into how one's life goes. The government is their to provide the TOOLS to move, not the money to live without strife.
Too commune like for you no doubt. Maybe you should get a better grasp of Israeli society, most especially early Israeli society?
..it was just a day or so ago that I was reading that American Jews were leaving the US in droves because there are no jobs here and everything is all rosy and nifty over there in secure and safe Israel. Say it ain't so Joe...
Same as in the US: policies like welfare encourage people to stay under the poverty line by creating livable conditions for people without jobs. Eliminate welfare and other "helping" programs and you persuade people to clean up, get off their butts and find jobs so that they can feed themselves. The poor will break out of poverty when poverty stops being enabled by their governments. Not an Israeli problem but one encountered by capitalist governments in general threatened by the Left.