Somewhere over 60 years ago, the immortal Ephraim Kishon wrote what was then called a "humoresque" titled: "A Tale of Last Waters".
The text described an emerging water crisis in light of the public's tendency to disregard the severe potential consequences of failing to reduce water consumption – and ended with the sentence: "So the day before yesterday the water ran out and everyone died."
I was reminded of Kishon, this towering figure, with the publication of the State Comptroller's severe report on the expected insolvency of the National Insurance Institute, estimated to occur in 2035 (alas, exactly one year before my pension eligibility date...!). For, much like the water sector: It is an unsexy topic, but essential to the life of each and every one of us, sooner or later.
After missing Kishon, who remains as relevant as ever many years after his passing, let us miss Netanyahu, may he live a long life.
That is, not the charlatan narcissist who has been serving as Israel's prime minister for far too long, but rather the shrewd statesman and excellent finance minister he once was – the one who understood that a country striving to progress cannot afford to create more and more welfare dependents.
And not only as finance minister, but also as a prime minister who called on us, the citizens, to engage in what he defined as "life itself." Well, National Insurance is life itself – and the fact that the State Comptroller's grave warning was pushed to the back of the news, long after topics like Lebanon (it troubled us 50 years ago, it will trouble us 50 years from now), Iran (in the end they will have nuclear weapons, according to foreign reports we do too), and even the elections (which will replace, perhaps, familiar tax robbers with new ones), is a badge of shame.
A badge of shame for the media (here, I beat my breast) but no less so for the consumers of media, those who fund National Insurance with their taxes knowing that the day will come when they will be its clients. That is – us.
Creating dependents
Why? Because every year, the State of Israel creates more and more beneficiaries of National Insurance allowances – and it will foot the bill to all of us, the taxpayers – and perhaps even beyond that, covet the funds we save by the sweat of our brows.
We usually encounter National Insurance when it demonstrates callousness in the face of real needs: It humiliates the disabled in medical committees, deploys private investigators unnecessarily, and above all, gives the impression that every claimant is a cheat and a rogue – until proven otherwise.
Except these cases (which, to remove any doubt, do indeed happen in reality) tell only part of the story, the other part of which is an industry of rogue behavior, of hundreds of thousands of people whose dependency is their profession.
This industry uses the unfortunate to enrich lawyers and companies specializing in the field, but even these are just the tip of the iceberg, because the Israeli government takes care to expand the circle of allowance recipients.
Of course, this improper funding does not always pass through National Insurance. There are plenty of diverse ways to support causes such as funding illegal outposts or funding non-profits that preach against IDF service, but National Insurance was and remains the primary pipeline of money for encouraging sectors that do not contribute – neither to the defense of the state nor to the economy.
The original version of Netanyahu, that is, the excellent finance minister he used to be, understood this immediately. One of the blessed steps associated with his name was the cutting of child allowances.
Netanyahu was right: A state should not fund the natural growth whims of its citizens, especially when they do almost nothing to protect their children (do not enlist) or support them (only half of the men work, and even this figure is inaccurate).
The problem is that Netanyahu, the prime minister, did everything to obliterate the legacy of Netanyahu from the Finance Ministry: He not only sanctified the exemption from service, labor, and studies that would one day increase the GDP, but he even rewarded it generously.
Where will the money come from?
Let us leave Netanyahu aside, in the hope that voters will soon have their say – and let us ask: Where will the money come from?
For it is clear to all of us that the government cannot allow National Insurance to collapse (yes, even this government, of which one can truly believe anything by now), a matter tantamount to stopping the state from existing. Therefore, from where will they make up the money that will be missing from the treasury?
You guessed it right, the Israeli family – from our children's food, from our savings, from our health, from our security, from our children's education. Clarification: "Ours" – the people who do work, the people who pay taxes, the people who push their children to acquire an education, develop, and succeed.
When it comes from "regular" taxes, we will all suffer, but the day is not far off when targeted taxes will also be imposed, which will hurt the middle class.
What does this mean? Regular taxes are an increase of an existing tax, as the current government did, raising the value-added tax from 17% to 18% – ostensibly to fund war expenses, but no less importantly – to fund the systemic corruption in the payoff budget it passed.
Targeted taxes, on the other hand, are like the special tax they plot to impose on electric vehicle owners, who "dared" to reduce state revenues from heavy fuel taxation. Except even this will run out very quickly if, heaven forbid, we continue to fund the birth of children whose parents do not want or cannot afford to support them.
What will the next step be? Dipping into public savings. I have already warned in the past and will continue to scream here at the top of every column: Our short- and medium-term savings – deposits, study funds, and provident funds – are already nearing the line of fire.
National insolvency
Perhaps no one will go crazy and nationalize private property (although if the next government also continues to rely on allowance-devourers, we will get there too), but a tax of (say) 10% on our study funds... that is certainly already in the treasury's basket of solutions.
So should we run to financial institutions to rescue the money before the state is officially declared insolvent...? Heaven forbid, we will not go that far, but it is definitely recommended for a cautious person to start spreading the risk: A little in Israel, a little abroad, a little in this channel and a little in another, where the direction is moving part of the funds out of the greedy reach of the Israeli government.
"Wolf, wolf"? Very possibly yes, but when the real wolf comes, it will already be too late, right? For if the celebration of corruption continues here – legally, through the allowances threatening the stability of the National Insurance Institute, or through all kinds of schemes, some of which are in the gray area and some already strictly criminal (who will investigate, the collapsing Israel Police?), we will yet find ourselves standing in the street in front of the locked gates of financial institutions.
Apocalyptic? Certainly. Exaggerated? Perhaps, but paraphrasing that masterful text by the late Ephraim Kishon, is there anyone who can guarantee, after the past three years, that we will not reach the day when we say: "So on Thursday National Insurance collapsed and the state ceased to exist"?