Minister of Economy Marie Antoinette: Orna Barbary's own goal
This is without a doubt the worst decision of the government in an attempt to curb the cost of living: Whoever encourages competition by reducing caps on luxury cheeses is similar to those who try to fight the housing crisis by reducing the purchase tax on villas and penthouses
Nir Kipnis
22/03/2022
Tuesday, 22 March 2022, 14:27 Updated: 14:53
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Historical research is doing kindness to Marie Antoinette, the Austrian princess who became the wife of French King Louis XVI and became famous in a trial she apparently never said.
According to the story, she asked what the masses were protesting outside the palace gates, and was told that the poor were protesting that they had no bread.
In a puzzled reply: "And what about that? If there is no bread, let them eat cakes!".
Whether the sentence was said or not, the image is indisputable: it has since become a symbol of the disconnect between the upper and seventh strata and the people.
Detachment is so severe that it does not allow the rich to discern the plight of the poor, let alone mobilize to alleviate them.
A favor was done with Orna Barbibai: I am sure that the intentions of the Minister of Economy, who decided to reduce the tariffs on premium category cheeses, were good.
Moreover, the prices of premium cheeses, like most prices of quality food in Israel, are outrageous.
Try to enter a cheese deli and you will have a hard time getting out of it without parting with a few hundred shekels.
For "Foodies" this is a handsome savings.
For everything else it is a finger in the eye.
It will be said right away: Camembert is a great cheese, so is the berry - and you can continue from there to the Emmental (which do you prefer, the French or the Swiss?) And onwards to the chunky Delis de Burgundy districts and even go east from France - to Parmesan in northern Italy or west, to The Spanish Manchego or the Dutch Gouda, get closer to the Balkans with feta or Greek Kaplutiri or Turkish Kashkabel - the dignity of all of these is in place - and those who understand and know, can easily add a few dozen more names to the list, including matching each cheese to the most flattering wine. .
I am the last to consider gourmet delicacies, but even I know this time, a reform that will reduce customs duties on the import of luxury cheeses (a welcome thing in itself) as a step to curb the cost of living, is like setting a NIS 500 roof price per diner at a gourmet restaurant in Tel Aviv.
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You will prove that you are not a northerner
The current government is accused of morning news, usually unjustly, that it is a northern government, a detached government that benefits only its voters: Tel Avivians, Ashkenazis and the rich.
But at moments like this it seems that even the biggest supporters of the government will find it difficult to fend off criticism: while the public is on the verge of a new "cottage protest", the government through the Minister of Economy is discounting luxury cheeses.
It is almost like lowering the prices of villas and penthouses in North Tel Aviv in response to the housing crisis.
This decision is so unfortunate that it is almost difficult to choose from which direction to start attacking it, but let's try another angle nonetheless: One of the hoped-for side effects of the move, according to the Ministry of Economy, is to improve competitiveness in the food market.
But instead of competing with the large dairies: Tnuva, Strauss and Terra, this step will initially hurt small and medium-sized dairies, small businesses, some even family-owned, that try to produce quality farm cheeses in Israel.
They have no more popular and sold products whose revenues will compensate for the decline in premium series sales (if any), but Yaakovs, Tzuriel, Hameiri - and other new institutions as old, from the Galilee to the few farms in the Negev, may find themselves in a competition where they have no chance of winning.
Cottage protest, summer 2011. The cottage is still expensive, but do not ask what will happen next to the prices of berries and Camembert! (Photo: Omar Miron)
The ballad for the transparent people
Back to our shopping cart: The cost of living hurts everyone, even the rich.
But the high-tech worker (if you stick to the stereotype) who found himself paying another NIS 500 at the supermarket's checkout on the weekly purchase, has no problem negotiating with the management of the company he works for to compensate him, even in part, for the reduction in his high wages.
Who can not cope with the increase in the cost of living?
The cleaning worker or factory worker who earns NIS 6,000 a month: who will add another NIS 1,000 to his salary to balance the erosion in wages?
The benefit announced by Orna Barbibai benefits the former.
The latter will have to push his shopping cart towards the checkout at the supermarket while praying that the credit card will pass and not force him to go through the humiliating ceremony of removing items from the cart so that he can be accountable (a sight that has become a common sight in supermarkets across Israel).
This is the place to point out that this is a good move, made at an unfortunate time.
Lowering caps, even on gourmet foods, is a welcome thing, but even at the purely media level, it's a glorious self-goal: it's just hard to understand how this unfortunate decision went through so many hands and eyes and no one shouted out loud that it was nonsense ?!
Minister of Economy, Orna Barbibai.
Apparently, the military pension of a champion in the army, combined with Sarah's salary, no longer makes it possible to see someone who does not have money for a cottage (Photo: Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel)
No valley?
Let them eat Camembert!
One does not have to boast of a "social" title to want an important economic ministry to be headed by a figure who understands economics, images, who will be sensitive to social needs and especially to small nuances that make all the difference.
Unfortunately, the champion in the res. Orna Barbibai was not blessed with any of these virtues.
Apparently from the heights of a huge military pension plus Sarah's salary, it is easier for her to understand those who complain about the prices of berries and parmesan, than those who do not get even a simple cheese, to say: if there is no valley, let them eat Camembert!
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Orna Barbibai
Cheeses
Ministry of Economy
Import
Cost of living
