Reading about poverty in Israel, the only thing that comes to mind is the effect of the Minister of Finance, Netanyahu’s, new policies on the economy. Like America, he made the Israeli Stock Market the fastest growing in the western world by adapting broad Reaganomic changes, like deregulation and fat breaks for business. The stock market doubled in one year I recall, and it has likely increased the number of millionaires in Israel in addition. But with predictable effects, the level of poverty among ordinary Israelis has increased.
Milton Friedman would here likely note that these so-called "poor people" are better off than they have ever been, have TVs, and many probably have a cell phone. How many people had cell phones 20 years ago? What poverty. Their lives have been improved considerably by supply side economics. The "let the private sector do it" philosophy, along with a lot of venture capitalists, unfettered by regulations and heavy taxes, makes everyone rich.
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