- Banned
- #261
That's a nice myth, but doesn't occur in practice.
Reality Check...
The UN ranks Israel among the 17 best countries to live in (out of 170 countries) in the world and with the highest qualities of life and human development, emphasizing political and cultural freedom and equality in education, healthcare, life expectancy and income, ahead of the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Italy, Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Austria
Indices & Data | Human Development Reports (HDR) | United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Human Development is a development paradigm that is about much more than the rise or fall of national incomes. It is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests. People are the real wealth of nations. Development is thus about expanding the choices people have to lead lives that they value. And it is thus about much more than economic growth, which is only a means if a very important one of enlarging peoples choices.
Fundamental to enlarging these choices is building human capabilities the range of things that people can do or be in life. The most basic capabilities for human development are to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community. Without these, many choices are simply not available, and many opportunities in life remain inaccessible.
Reality Check: Did you check to see if those standards are equitable across Israel? For example, do the bulk of the Israeli Arabs enjoy the same standards as the bulk of Israeli Jews? I think you will find they do not. It's a bit like looking at the US as enjoying a high standard of living but, if you look at the ratings for Native Americans on reservations - they rank at horrible levels.
I only have 5 more minutes online so I'll expand on this later with links to sources.
The report on Israel being among the 17 best places to live speaks for itself