So the more I think about the attempts to get hareidi men to enlist in the army, the more I don't understand how this is supposed to work, exactly.
One idea is economic disincentives not to serve. Which could be effective. Except that the other big issue people/the government have/has with hareidim is that so many of them are under the poverty line due to lifestyle choices. Meaning economic disincentives are 1. unlikely to work and 2. a step in the wrong direction.
I'm going to assume that keeping 90% of hareidi men ages 18-22 in jail isn't an option. (Inhumane.)
I'm going to assume that creating army teams of three - two hareidi guys to guard, one non-hareidi guy to shoot them if they try to run away - is also not an option. (Not cost-effective.)
But on the other hand, having two different laws for two different groups of people is also not going to work. Unless they're Israeli Arabs, who also don't have to enlist, but let's not go there.
So. I like MK Elazar Stern's idea - make anyone who doesn't enlist pay. People who don't do army pay higher taxes for a while.
It's not quite an economic disincentive, since it improves the current economic situation by allowing those who choose not to serve to join the workforce immediately, rather than wait until they age out of the system.
And it lets everyone feel like they're a part of things. People who can't serve in the army for whatever reason can still feel proud knowing they've helped. Every time the IDF uses Iron Dome to shoot down a $15-dollar rocket instead of just shooting the guys trying to fire it in the heads, they (the non-soldier tax-payers) will have the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing that the taxes they paid that year covered 1/200th of that.
The only question is what to do if people refuse to either join the army or join the workforce.
Which is basically the dilemma we're currently in.
So, not really a solution.
But other than that, a good plan.
One idea is economic disincentives not to serve. Which could be effective. Except that the other big issue people/the government have/has with hareidim is that so many of them are under the poverty line due to lifestyle choices. Meaning economic disincentives are 1. unlikely to work and 2. a step in the wrong direction.
I'm going to assume that keeping 90% of hareidi men ages 18-22 in jail isn't an option. (Inhumane.)
I'm going to assume that creating army teams of three - two hareidi guys to guard, one non-hareidi guy to shoot them if they try to run away - is also not an option. (Not cost-effective.)
But on the other hand, having two different laws for two different groups of people is also not going to work. Unless they're Israeli Arabs, who also don't have to enlist, but let's not go there.
So. I like MK Elazar Stern's idea - make anyone who doesn't enlist pay. People who don't do army pay higher taxes for a while.
It's not quite an economic disincentive, since it improves the current economic situation by allowing those who choose not to serve to join the workforce immediately, rather than wait until they age out of the system.
And it lets everyone feel like they're a part of things. People who can't serve in the army for whatever reason can still feel proud knowing they've helped. Every time the IDF uses Iron Dome to shoot down a $15-dollar rocket instead of just shooting the guys trying to fire it in the heads, they (the non-soldier tax-payers) will have the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing that the taxes they paid that year covered 1/200th of that.
The only question is what to do if people refuse to either join the army or join the workforce.
Which is basically the dilemma we're currently in.
So, not really a solution.
But other than that, a good plan.
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