As my California friends complained on Facebook about their tap water being bottled and sold by greedy commercial enterprises, such as Nestle, it occurred to me that California is like 1980s Israel and Israel is like 1980s California.
Israel used to have socialism and shortages of everything. Now Israel has a market economy and plenty of everything.
California was a market economy at one point. Now it is a welfare state that is running out of important stuff (water, money to pay pensions, vaccinated children, etc.)
What do readers think of the analogy?
The analogy falls flat because why would billions of venture capitalist dollars flow into a socialist state? While there are socialists aspects about living in California, it still has a strong market economy with a very strong entrepreneurial drive. And despite all the dire reports, water still isn’t in short supply (even after a third year of drought).
Your socialist analogy might work better for states like Michigan and New York, or even Massachusetts than California.
Your facebook friends are idiots, with all due respect. The % of California’s water that is stolen by greedy capitalists and sold at high prices to those dying of thirst is literally a drop in the bucket. One almond ranch uses more water in a year than Nestle will “steal” in a century.
California is socialist in this sense – market economies never run out of stuff – the price adjusts so that supply meets demand. If your state or country is running out of stuff, it’s because socialist policies have interfered with the market price clearing mechanism. If socialism came to Alaska, soon they would have a shortage of ice cubes.
Wait, private companies selling water means California is a socialist economy?
So sould Israel care to share it’s market solutions for water shortage with California?
http://energy.gov.il/English/Subjects/water/Pages/AboutWater.aspx
A national water company operating under the supervision of the Water Authority which… Under his watch, the Israel Water Authority set … water quota for every individual and farmer, and taxed excess use at a much higher rate. The amount of water allocated to farmers was cut in half, forcing them to grow less thirsty crops and adopt water-saving technology.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/05/07/israel-drought-california-desalination/26923503/
Can we start bombing Nevada under your plan?
Colin: Yes, Israel and California could swap military roles. California can have periodic skirmishes with hostile neighbors. Israel can start from a position of enjoying a placid neighborhood, then select a Nobel Peace laureate as its commander in chief and fight with people all over the world.
@Peter T: “why would billions of venture capitalist dollars flow into a socialist state?”
Because socialism, being parasitic, goes where the tastiest hosts are.
Your question is like asking “If the parasites always kills the host, why would nutrition flow into an animal that hosts a parasite?” The nutrition will continue to flow until the host is dead. Then the parasites will move on to Texas.
Looking forward to the Californian Hugo Chavez.
Perhaps the first question I am uniquely equipped to answer! I have just moved from California to Israel, and I can say that 2015 California and 2015 Tel Aviv feel remarkably similar. Both feature government bureaucracies, lots of very smart people, start-up culture, high cost of living (relative to local wages), and a non-coastal area where coastal people feel uncomfortable (Jerusalem, Central Valley).
If by Israel having “plenty of everything” you mean Jewish Israel, you might be right. Non-Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in the occupied territories don’t participate. Specifically, Israeli policies regarding water distribution are discriminatory.
Marc: Good point. I forgot to add that Israel is the home of most of the world’s bad people, unlike the U.S. where there is no discrimination and everyone has equal access to all of the good stuff (cf. Baltimore).
See http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/04/30/how-western-media-would-cover-baltimore-if-it-happened-elsewhere/
“Specifically, Israeli policies regarding water distribution are discriminatory.”
Apparently Palestinians refuse to pay utility bills of any kind, as a protest against Israeli occupation. Somehow, being occupied entitles them to free water and electricity in their view. Israel puts up with the situation because it would be seen as EEEVIL if they were to turn off the water and electricity for non-payment the way anyone else would if they were not being paid.
Not paying utility bills is very common in third worldish kind of places. Most of the water/electricity gets stolen thru illegal hookups. As a result the utility company is starved for capital and as a result the utilities don’t work very well. My son just got back from Ghana and the electricity was on once in a while. Mostly it was off.
My guess is that without the Israeli presence, the average Palestinian would have even LESS access to water. Before the Zionists came and built all sorts of water distribution systems, Israel was mostly a sandy wasteland. “Water distribution” mean carrying jugs of water on your head. The Arabs had 1000 years to improve the place and they accomplished nothing.
Philip, even right-wingers in Israel wouldn’t say that Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as Israeli Arabs, have “plenty of everything.” The facts are the facts. Rather, as Izzie demonstrates, they deflect any criticism of Israel (such as mine) by saying that these people deserved what they got, or aren’t sufficiently peaceful, don’t pay their bills, etc., etc. Demonizing put-upon minorities is a tactic that started long before Israel was invented. (And, as you correctly note, the US is as guilty as anyone.) Middle-class white American Jews (of which I’m one, as perhaps you two are), more often than not believe this horse shit. So did I, until a couple of years ago when I started educating myself more about what is really going on. I wonder what positions you would have taken during the so-called “Indian wars” or during US slavery. The side of oppressors? Probably me, too. I was as ignorant and prejudiced as you are.
Marc: Agreed that the best way to show oneself not to be ignorant and prejudiced, at least on an American university campus today, is to concentrate one’s criticisms on 6 million Jews on the other side of the planet (as opposed to the 310+ million non-Jews here in the U.S. or the 7 billion non-Jews worldwide). That qualifies as “speaking truth to power.”
As California has nearly double the incarceration rate of Israel currently, you might find that not everyone in California shares your view that complaining about the oppression perpetrated by Israeli Jews should be an American’s top priority. (As Muhammad Ali noted, to those who wished his assistance in dealing with the oppressive acts of the North Vietnamese: “No Viet Cong ever called me a nigger”; see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLam_GiQ2Ww )