The 40-percent wage increase given Knesset members a month ago goes hand in hand with the November 1st income advancement for senior managers and administrators of government agencies and businesses. What both of these increases reveal is a national economy out of control. The public sector spending is leading the Israeli economy to disaster. This is not new and is certainly not unique to Israel. Socialist economies have as their trademark excessive public expenditures with wealthy administrators "doing all within their power for the underprivileged" and even more for their business and political friends. A further law of socialist regimes is that the wide gap between the economic classes ever increases as those on the public dole allow themselves greater liberties with the nation's fiscal resources. Already, in Israel the salaries paid to government employees and top management personnel of government owned businesses is exorbitant, beyond the comprehension of most Israelis. The entire system is maintained with a power base of jobs and political hirings. Fear of rocking the boat lest your government job be at risk is not an uncommon attitude.

The irony is that this was all supposed to change with the election of the fiscally conservative, Likud Party. Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu promised a capitalist economy in which competition and value of work was to determine wages within a free market system. Instead, the old guard is allowed to continue their tyranny by creating a false economic standard manufactured by the government. The result will be increased unemployment and, down the road, inflation.

A nation whose balance of payments is less than admirable and whose economy is continuously seeking loan guarantees in order to borrow and pay off its debts can ill afford an inflated sense of reality created by the Knesset. How is it possible to curb public spending when the leaders of the government and those of the local municipalities so dramatically increase what they take home monthly? How can the government justify huge pay hikes to managers of businesses that make no money? The answer is that they cannot. How do they get away with it? Share the wealth. Get sufficient pay increases to all those whose voices might be heard and listened to by the voting public. Keep the bureaucracy well oiled and throw money at the first sign of discontent. Who pays for this? Not only the Israeli tax payer, but the countries from whom foreign aid is obtained. The enormous deficits incurred by the economic policies of the Israeli government are displayed as evidence of economic need. A need that could be dramatically decreased if not for the greed of the politicians. Perhaps the promises of eliminating government waste could make honest figure for economic need. Perhaps money could be spent to take Ethiopian immigrates out of trailer housing.

All this aside, where is the political will of the new government when it comes to the economy? According to recent newspaper reports, local municipalities are calling for a strike to protest their NIS 2 billion deficit. They insist that the blame must be placed on the national government for requiring them to implement ordinances on a local level that are not paid for on a national budget. This may be true, however it does not excuse the unbridled spending sprees of every part of the public sector. An editorial in the October 28 Jerusalem Post states: "According to a report published this January by the Treasury's wage department, excessive salary payments by public organizations cost the Treasury hundreds of millions of shekels in 1994 (the last year for which the data have been published). The report found that local authorities were among the worst offenders, violating legal limits on wages 'systematically.'"

Years of this kind of irresponsible fiscal behavior on the part of both the national and local government agencies must come to a complete and abrupt halt. The Netanyahu government must take seriously the need to get Israel's economic house in order. Clearing away the old economic policies of socialism means eradicating the selfish and greedy infrastructure of beuracracy that maintains and incourages such a system.
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