RELATED:Is Israel really more expensive than the rest of the world? It seems that the striking middle class has forgotten Israel's class struggle of yesteryear, when people championed the poor egalitarian society and warded off the wealthy capitalists' exploitation of workers.Within that poor society there was little, yet we all shared what little there was. Those of us who were raised modestly studied and worked hard to make a living, yet it never occurred to us that the state "owed" us affordable housing. I, for one, was content to begin my career and family in a cheap one-room apartment in the poorest neighborhood of Jerusalem, with an ice-box replacing a fridge.The government may have inflicted upon us a regime of socialism that kept us and the country poor, yet I never complained or protested. And over the years–without inheriting money and often with one salary for the family—I received an education and eventually acquired a higher standard of housing.Lest one think that coincidental good fortune was my lot, my children are proof that this is not the case. Compared with many of today's younger generation who claim unbearable burdens that they cannot afford, my three children refrained from extended trips to South America and the sub-continent, and instead chose to be conscientious in their studies and building their careers. And without assistance or complaints, they are now comfortably settled, housed, and employed.My impression is that today's younger generation is simply spoiled: They seem woefully unwilling to build themselves up patiently and frugally, and instigated by political parties, the Histadrut, or professional strikers, have discovered that it is much easier to demand that the government dip into its pockets and pay their bills than toiling hard to attain the means they think they need immediately. They unfairly criticize the powers that be without stopping for a minute and reflecting on the positive aspects of what the "careless government" and "irresponsible prime minister" have achieved for their country since they came to power: a stable and thriving economy and full employment to begin with. And on the political arena, the mobilization of many Israeli friends to oppose the Palestinian moves in the UN, a stunning success in winning the support of the American Congress against the will of its hostile president, and the more recent scuttling the new anti-Israel flotilla and "flightilla" in the bud.
