How Living Two Years Under Socialism Made Me a Capitalist

Dov Fischer October 13, 2018

In 1985 my family moved to Israel for two years, playing our part in reclaiming a heretofore unclaimed portion of our Biblical patrimony. So, with 35 other young families, we co-founded the new community of Neve Aliza in Ginot Shomron (“Samaria Gardens”) in the heart of Samaria, the northern half of what is falsely misnomered as the “West Bank.” Neve Aliza since has grown by 600%, with Ginot Shomron likewise now comprising part of greater metropolitanKarnei Shomron. Karnei Shomron now has a population of some 8,000 people, approximately the population of Malibu or Sedona, Arizona. Israel-haters call it a “West Bank settlement.”

In those years, Israel was governed primarily under socialist economic principles. Always a democracy, Israel’s governing institutions nevertheless were founded by deeply non-religious and even anti-religious secular socialists who had fled Tsarist Russia in the late 1800s. For half a century, until the Menachem Begin earthquake election of 1977, Israel was governed by coalitions led by the leftist Labor Party. They had built the socialist kibbutzim (agricultural socialist collectives) that the liberal media idealized. These were the darlings of the leftist-liberal media during Israel’s nascent years, names like Ben-Gurion, Rabin, Dayan, Golda Meir. Leftist socialists all.........

To encourage Israelis not to be materialistic, the Labor Socialist government “Big Brother” did not penalize what they believed you needed… but they double-taxed what they felt you greedily wanted.

I still remember these examples from back in 1985:

• For a washing machine — no penalty. The government agrees you need a washing machine. But for a dryer, a 100% surtax — go hang your clothes with wood pegs on a line.
• For a refrigerator — no penalty. But for a freezer, a 100% surtax.
• For a television — no penalty. But for a VCR (remember those?), a 100% surtax: you do not need to watch videos.
• For corn flakes — no penalty. But for Rice Krispies — a 100% surtax.
• There was a tax for having a radio in your car; the Labor Socialist left saw no need for you to listen to radio while driving.

I had been forced to study socialism on an undergraduate level at Columbia’s Ivory Towers.   Now I was getting my graduate degree in real life. I started to see how people live in actuality under socialism.

They cheat. ..........To Read More.....