How much?

June 23, 2011 - 5:29 AM by

Cottage cheese in the supermarket (The Marker)

In their continual research about the cost of living in Israel, business newspaper Globes recently published an article — “We’re Overpaying For More Than Just Cottage Cheese” — that has locals up in arms — at least on Facebook — about how much we spend in our daily lives. The cottage cheese part comes from its high ticket price that launched a Facebook revolution of its own.

The Globes followup is not new news, but seeing it in print is a bit overwhelming, particularly when they tell us that the Israeli consumer pays two to three times more than others worldwide in monthly expenditures, while Israeli salaries are considerably lower compared with the rest of the world.

In fact, it’s somewhat gratifying, even satisfying, because it makes me feel better about my costs, my overdraft and my complaints. Read this:

However, if you take into account the average salary of an Israeli compared with those who live across the ocean, the picture is bleak: the average salary in America is about NIS 13,000 a month, and in the large cities about NIS 17,000 a month (according to the federal government website,) data from the European Union show that the average salary in Britain is about NIS 15,000, in France about NIS 16,000, and in Germany about NIS 12,000. Here, the average salary is only NIS 9,000 (and this does not take into consideration the large gap between the rich and poor).

The difficulty in making ends meet is felt heavily in all aspects of the family budget: “I can easily fully clothe my children for $100 a child,” said an Israeli living in the US, “whereas in Israel it would cost me much more. In the US, there is a huge market for good quality children’s and adult clothing at reasonable prices — prices that you will find in Israel only at the bazaars, where the quality is extremely low.”

Target, Walmart, and The Children’s Place are examples of these types of stores; even chains that “made aliyah” like American Gap or Swedish H&M, sell at prices that are 15-30% more than across the sea.

Here are some more aspects of the family budget that it is worthwhile to know how much we are paying for compared with other countries — a painful reminder of reality that starts with cottage cheese.

In brief, because you can read the article here, it comes down to cottage cheese, fuel, college tuition, mobile phones, cable and satellite, cars and apartment rentals. All are expensive, sometimes prohibitively so, and the prices end up affecting your life in a myriad of ways, from struggling with one car to

Sure, health care is cheap and great, as is bread — not the artisinal sourdough kind — tomatoes and cucumbers, milk and falafel. But not a whole lot else. As we compare our cost of living and style with our friends in the States, it’s astounding what a 6,000 to 7,000-mile difference can make. They’ve got two cars, we have one. They have savings, we do, sometimes. They don’t think twice about certain kinds of shopping sprees, we do. And more often than not, we’re in similar professions or at least careers that would have similar salaries if we lived in the same place.

But, then again, we get to live where we live, which has its benefits. Even if we pay through the nose for the the privilege, and can’t afford more than two containers of cottage cheese each week, or go into overdraft because of it.

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Comments

2 Comments on How much?

  1. David on Thu, Jun 23rd 2011 6:53 AM

    2. Comparing the US to Israel is ridiculous. They are at different stages of development to begin with. Israel has moved beyond the developmental stage and based on per capita in Euro terms is equalvalent to Germany.

    Secondly, Israel is more like a European nation than the United States – thank God.

    But also, Israel is still a country that receives billions of dollars in aid from the United States and until it weans itself from this disgusting dependency it will remain a negative factor.

    There are regulations, laws and a host of factors that make straight comparisons irrelevant, besides manufacturing and processing inputs such as fuel and animal feed for example as well as simple supply versus demand.

    Cottage cheese is just not on the menu for Americans whereas oatmeal would be – for example.

    And exactly how was this comparison computed because comparing costs in the United States in different regions, cities compared to small towns or urban versus rural reveals significant difference in costs.

    Therefore making an average US cost is suspect to start with never mind across countries that in reality have little in common with each other.

    In my view the study over living expenses is not worth the pixels its takes up,

    This is not to say items are not expensive but context is vital.

  2. A Solstice of Dissent | Expeditions: Da'at Travel on Sun, Aug 21st 2011 2:07 PM

    3. [...] throughout the Middle East. Beginning with a Facebook-driven protest against the rising cost of cottage cheese, that successful round possibly inspired the Rothschild Boulevard-tent-city-in-Tel Aviv [...]

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