The prevailing feeling is that the cost of living is not just a fate derived from the state of the world's financial markets, but the result of cynical exploitation by stakeholders, that as long as there are clients willing to pay exorbitant prices, prices will continue to rise.
The rules of micro and macroeconomic calculations taught in universities are no longer relevant, since the tools of checks and balances that steer market forces are manipulated and adjusted by monopolies, so that even if officially traders and suppliers do not commit a criminal offense for price fixing, the trends are certainly coordinated and balanced, causing the cost of living to soar ahead towards an unknown destination.
This is what happened with the price of housing in Israel, and it is happening with food, clothing, and more.
People at Ayalon Mall (archive), photo: Coco
But just as suppliers have the technical (even if illegal) ability to carry out price increases beyond the real price of products, so the population has the ability to balance the prices themselves by lowering demand, but this requires social leadership that can lead to a consumer boycott. This succeeded in the cottage protest a few years ago, and will probably succeed as long as the protest is collective and clear.
In rabbinic literature there are many records of the involvement of the public leadership and court systems in maintaining economic balances and appropriate prices.
Recently, the discourse surrounding the issue of the ultra-Orthodox public's unofficial boycott of angel bakeries has intensified. In this context, one of the most common uses of boycott tools during the time of the Sages was in the hands of the courts, in order to maintain checks and balances in the markets and prevent price increases, and as Maimonides cites (30 Theft 8:20): "It is obligatory for a beit din to appoint police officers in every state and state and in every province, who will be suitors of the shops... And anyone who expropriates the gate and sells dearly... It is bent and recognized as the market rate." They also stipulated that profits on essential basic goods should not be more than one-sixth of the base price of the product.
Provoked the Angel Bakery protest. Omer Bar-Lev (Archive), photo: Courtesy of Beer Sheva Municipality
Sometimes there were even collective orders to boycott consumers in order to prevent arbitrary price increases, as happened on one occasion when the Sages ordered not to buy fish at all for several weeks despite the commandment to indulge in fish on Shabbat so that their price in the market would balance, and even forbade the rich to purchase fish.
In order to maintain fair prices for consumers and sellers, Jewish law states that it is actually possible to coordinate prices and plan sales between merchants, such as that on a certain day only one will sell the same product, so that they can control the price level and prevent excessive competition, which can harm the merchants' minimal profitability. On the other hand, the public can amend regulations and provisions prohibiting purchases beyond certain amounts, setting prices of basic goods and other balances that protect the consumer's interest, and anyone who sells at a higher price should not be purchased from him. One of the regulations even amended far-reaching sanctions for the rich that would break the consumer boycott, which could harm reasonable price levels.
To control the balance, condition it on having a "smart" person in the city who can control the reliability of processes.
One of the success stories of the public sanctions regarding the cost of living is told in the Mishnah in Tractate Cuttings (1:7), when pigeon sellers greatly increased prices due to increased demand for their sacrifice in the Temple. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, who was the leader and president of the court, informed the merchants that if they did not lower the price, a fatwa would be issued that it was forbidden to accept pigeons for sacrifice in the Temple. The threat helped, since "Kinin stood that day in quarters" (their price was a quarter of what it was before the sanctions).
The cost of living requires leadership to supervise price gouging that will harm consumers, while at the same time preventing traders from being harmed for loss prices. And if prices continue to soar, an informed and coordinated consumer boycott can help as it has in the past.
Dairy products in the supermarket (archive), photo: Rafael Ben Ari
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