Income disparity

List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita.

       United States $85,373

       Israel $53,372

Big difference. 

But even this doesn't capture it because the GDP for Jews in America is $129,000. 

Even worse, GDP per Capita in Israel averaged $32,492.68 from 1991 until 2023. So there isn't much wealth built up over the years. 

In 1980 in Israel it was $6,357. In the USA it was $12,575. In 1960 it was $1,229 in Israel and $3,014 in the USA. So figure that the standard of living is much more than double in the USA.

And America goes back 300 years. Even colonial era buildings are more grand than nearly anything in Israel. Israel 70 years ago had very little - a bit in Jerusalem, Yaffo. America has hundreds of years of building infrastructure with much more gusto and style. You cannot compare the two. There is nothing in all of Israel like Princeton University or the Upper East Side of Manhattan or Montclair, NJ or 5,000 other lovely places. No place in Israel is lovely. 

In America and Europe, you drive down the street and enjoy the site of other people's nice houses. You pass grand government buildings. Yankee Stadium cost $1 billion. You can go to a game there and take in the wealth of it all. It's uplifting.

Israel is another matter altogether. You see the difference in the crumbling roads, junky and dirty housing, lack of grand architecture, barren parks of Israel. The difference is vast. Israel is kind of a dump really. Nefesh b'nefesh gives you these photos of lovely new housing. Unless you are coming with lots of money, that's not how you are going to live. And it's not what you are going to pass on the roads or encounter in your neighbor's house.

The aliyah sales people misrepresent life in Israel. Here's how NBN depicts the housing:

Here's what you really get:

Here's what the apartment building will look like:

Can you even afford it? An apartment like this will cost you $700,000. Here's what you can buy in Dallas for that price:

Here's your neighborhood in Israel:

Here's Dallas:

You want to live like that? Is it healthy for you family to experience such a decline? In Israel, the kids will be on top of one another with little play space and little privacy. Will they be able to handle it? If they recall the USA or if their cousins live in nice houses, will they look down on the life you have moved them too? Will they look down on you? The answer is probably yes. 

You want to say, who cares it's goshmiyus? What winds up happening is that you are your family start caring more about goshmiyus because you see what you left behind.

It gets depressing looking at the same white buildings all day long. It also affects emunah. G-d made the world with variety so you will think of Him Who brings about the variety. Israel lacks that in architecture, flora, and culture. It's same, same, same. 

And goshimiyus is what most Zionists care about anyway. If they cared about the keddushah of the land, they wouldn't bring non-religious Jews onto it by the million. They wouldn't have gay pride events or one of the world's highest rates of abortion. 

You want to say that's secular Zionists. That's who runs the country and the Dati Leumi are more in league with them than they are the Haredim. The DL hate the Haredim. 

And the DL also mostly care about goshmiyus. The army is goshmiyus and that's their biggest love. I know many DL. They are always telling me first about the army, then about the economy and the construction. They love cranes. But the cranes are slapping together buildings that are nothing special. 

The economy is nothing special. Zionists make sure to tell you about the inventions that come out of Israel, but there aren't many. Youth is wasted on the military. On the innovation index, Israel rates about 30th, far behind countries of the same size like Finland and Switzerland. And that Israel has 6 million Jews makes this statistic even more disturbing because Jews in Western countries are responsible for many inventions and innovations. Jewish productivity is much lower in Israel. 

I estimate that the standard of living for the typical oleh drops to 20% of what it once was. It can be even less for those who can't find work or find only sweat shop jobs. And there are many people like that.

Yet, cost of living is higher. Here's pants from Walmart. $13.98. They will last for years.

In Israel I spend 250 NIS, which is around $65 for polyester pants that fall apart after 5 months. 

The town I live in recently got some Chinese food. Not a full Chinese restaurant, but a hamburger, sushia, Chinese place. 6 dumplings cost 60 NIS, which is 18 dollars. In the US, I'd pay 6 dollars for that. 

And I'm not even getting into the cost of cars, computers, or anything electronic.