This is not good for any society, but it should cause great worry in a small country such as Israel. This is a social fabric issue but also bad for politics where some people could influence the politicians far beyond their numbers relative to the population.
By comparison, in the US, the top 0.5% of the population controls 11% of income.
Business Data Israel (BDI) reports that Israel’s 19 wealthiest families controlled an aggregate NIS 248 billion in revenue in 2006, 34% of the NIS 722 billion earned by the country’s 500 largest companies altogether. This is BDI’s third annual concentration index on concentration in the Israeli economy.
BDI adds that the aggregate income controlled by the 19 families equaled 88% of the government budget of NIS 283 billion, and over half of the business product of NIS 457 billion.
Business Data Israel (BDI) reports that Israel’s 19 wealthiest families controlled an aggregate NIS 248 billion in revenue in 2006, 34% of the NIS 722 billion earned by the country’s 500 largest companies altogether. This is BDI’s third annual concentration index on concentration in the Israeli economy.
BDI adds that the aggregate income controlled by the 19 families equaled 88% of the government budget of NIS 283 billion, and over half of the business product of NIS 457 billion.
Current exchange is about 4.25 shekels to the dollar.
source: Globes
Unfortunately, they also control the mass media too, so it is not to critical, and not the ‘watchdog’ of democracy we need in a western society.
So how do we deal with it? First, we try to empower people into critical thinking by asking questions that reporters are not even bothering to answer in their articles. We then recommend people cancel newspaper subscriptions to the tabloids. Then we recommend they stop believing the narrow-minded newscasts. Then we show them how stupid tv is and how it controls them.
In the past, Israel used to show statistics about how society was getting more advanced: the increasing amount/percentage of tvs, microwaves, dishawashers, etc… per capita. I can assure you that the penetration of tvs into Israel homes is dropping and not limited to Haredi or Torani religious families.
your quote is wrong. you say that 19 families control 34% of Israel’s income. The article actually states they equal 34% of the top 500 companies combined. That leaves out a HUGE sum of income such as government incomes, small companies, and self-employed people.
It would be interesting to see what percentage of that wealth these billionaire Israeli families are returning to the population that supplied it to them. Where do you think we can find figures on how philanthropic these wealthy Zionists are? My sneaky suspicion is that we won’t find that a significant portion of that wealth is being used to help the society whose hard work and taxes sustain the country in which it was earned.
While this is most certainly OFN, the Israeli communist party Chadash did make note of this in their election ad in 2006.
Apparently family number 19 made it into the ranks.