Who says it better: Israeli vs. U.S. politicians

These two have frighteningly similar and out of touch perceptions of what constitutes the middle class.

Monday was a banner day in Israel for mind-numbingly and inexplicably stupid things said by politicians. It's Wednesday, and the hangover has yet to subside from reaction to a Facebook post by the newly elected Finance Minister, Yair Lapid. Mr. Lapid went on at length Monday about how the job of he and his colleagues is not to focus on the calculators and Excel spreadsheets before them, but instead individual cases, such as that of one Mrs. Ricki Cohen. The hypothetical Mrs. Cohen and her husband represent the ideal middle class workers to Mr. Lapid's mind, hard-working taxpayers making just over $5500 a month with 3 kids to support. On that meager sum, the Cohens can hardly afford the trappings of a comfortable lifestyle, such as overseas vacations or the purchase of apartments for their children when they become adults. It's cases like Mrs. Cohen's which should guide the ministry's thinking on how to balance the budget and relieve the burden on middle class families.

Congratulations if you made it through that without flinching! You might be an employment candidate for the Israeli finance ministry. The reality of life here is that a family making $5500 a month is doing pretty well. Well enough in fact, that they're better off than over 80 percent of Israelis. The Bank of Israel actually considers the Cohens to be upper middle class, and the average Israeli monthly salary is closer to $2500. 

It's one thing to laugh at a wealthy politician's ignorance, but the people who suffer at the expense of that ignorance don't think it's funny. This is the man heading up the government agency charged with creating policies to alleviate economic strain on vulnerable citizens. How can he help them if he can't even identify them? The feedback from Israeli citizens on Lapid's Facebook post asks the same questions. Countless Israelis informed Lapid that they could only "dream" of bringing in that kind of money every month. "What about my class" was repeated in different variations over and over throughout the comments thread. 

And yet, I'm not even saying that The Cohens aren't struggling. This is a valid part of the problem, that even the upper middle class is finding it difficult to get by, even if "getting by" is held to a different standard in their eyes. And if they are "struggling", how hard must it be for the other 80 percent of Israeli society, especially low-income residents to whom $5500 a month would seem like a small fortune? But this is how big the gap between rich and poor has become. Yes, overseas vacations and apartments for your kids are not primary financial concerns, but I can still see how living on $5500 a month with 3 kids, at least in Tel Aviv, could be difficult. This is why the work being done by YEDID is so important. Right now we laugh at the idea of The Cohens being part of an economically vulnerable population. But the numbers of those joining the ranks of the vulnerable increases year to year. It is entirely possible that in a few years' time, The Cohens could end up on YEDID's doorstep seeking budget planning courses or mortgage assistance. And in the meantime, the populations on YEDID's doorstep today, immigrants, low-income Israelis, single moms and others, are trying to make it on far, far less than The Cohens.

Lapid earned his spot as Finance Minister following Israeli elections in January, which followed the U.S. elections in November. His comments immediately reminded me of our Republican Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney, who was endlessly ridiculed in the press for being an out of touch multimillionaire with too much money to sympathize with the concerns of ordinary Americans. The most memorable gaffe of the campaign, and one which undoubtedly helped him lose his bid for office, was about "The 47 percent." Romney asserted at a private fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans would vote for Obama regardless, because they are dependent on government handouts - for food, healthcare, housing, and other things. The demographic he was referring to are Americans who don't pay Federal Income Tax, a group encompassing a wide range of people, including not just the poor, but seniors living on social security and the disabled. His view showcased a startling misunderstanding of who needs help, what kind of help they need and why. Rather than figure this out, it's easier for conservatives in the states to label an entire half of the country as lazy ne'er-do-wells. I haven't heard that kind of name-calling in Israel, though I'm sure it exists somewhere. But it's certainly a striking parallel that in both countries, while a large swath of the population struggles to make ends meet, their elected leadership struggles to identify exactly who they are.