Habit of Labor: Lessons from a Life of Struggle and Success by Stef Wertheimer

Author:Stef Wertheimer [Wertheimer, Stef]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: BIO003000
ISBN: 9781468313222
Publisher: The Overlook Press
Published: 2015-10-20T06:00:00+00:00

As a member of the Knesset I would get involved in debates with the power brokers in the upper echelons. I would explain that Israel’s economic independence was really just around the corner, and that if we worked correctly, we could reach a surplus of tens of billions in one decade, as in Taiwan. But they would shrug disparagingly: “Oh, what do you understand about the reciprocal relationships in the economy, Stef?” I actually did understand. I understood that politics, not the economy, was what drove the ministers and their minions.

I felt that if Israel were a strong exporting nation it could function efficiently with a government of only five ministries. First would be a Ministry of Defense, which would focus solely on security and would not expand its purview to the fields of industry, employment, economics, and social welfare, as is the case in Israel today. Second would be a Ministry of Export Economy; the minister for exports, second in importance only to the defense minister, would coordinate all of the state’s economic initiatives, including the means of production and local (nonexport) industries, all with one main objective: developing industry for export. In such an economic ministry, the Ministry of Finance would become a treasurer’s office serving all of the economic activity. Instead of a minister of finance who acts as an allocator, there would be a strong minister of export who would assign funds for essential investment in export industry. Third would be a Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deal with Israel’s foreign relations and also assist in expanding its export markets in the world. Fourth would be a Ministry of the Interior to provide all of the essential services—police, law, health, and the like—with minimal interference in private life. Finally, there would be a Ministry of Education, Academia, and Labor, which would focus much more on vocational education, would guide workers to new jobs created by the expanding export industries, and would handle all of the cultural activity, including the encouragement of artistic work.

I was convinced that we should eliminate the redundancies imposed by the multiplicity of state authorities whose leadership was obliged to pay its supporters in jobs and budgets. In a slimmer government, we could do without the Ministry of Housing, which derives its power from its ability to block independent civil companies from building rental apartments; the Ministry of Transportation, which should be a purely professional body, devoted to transportation and road safety; the Ministry of Social Welfare, which would be unnecessary because my proposed Ministry of Education, Academia, and Labor would create profitable places of employment for everyone; and the Ministry of Health, whose work would be taken over by the Ministry of the Interior. The affairs of agriculture, the police, justice, immigrant absorption, tourism, science, development, communication, environmental protection and religion would be managed within the efficient frameworks of the five government ministries.

Today this is still a dream that is very far from realization. In the foreseeable future, the politicians will continue

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