While income inequality may be a topic of conversation among Americans, Israel had decided to actually do something about it, The Dealbook reported. With mass protests since 2011 on how wealth has been concentrated on only a few people in Israel, the parliament known as the Knesset gave a vote of approval to break up the nation's corporate conglomerates.
The report said hundreds of thousands of protesters had vented their ire on the few Israeli tycoons who own holding firms that control an estimated 30% of the country's economy. Most of the businesses of these tycoons are conducted through a "pyramid" style wherein a family or individual that owns a public firm which correspondingly controls a number of other public companies, the report said.
The Dealbook gave as an example the now debt-laded IDB Holding Corporation headed by Nochi Dankner which was the country's largest pyramid. At its height, the firm had control of Israir, an airline firm, the supermarket chain Super Sol as well as one of the largest insurance firms in the country.
Journalists at Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, led the protest. They claimed that the public shareholders of the country were often at the losing end as they were only used by the tycoons to subsidize their business collection, the report said.
Income inequality was also growing in the country with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development saying in 2008 that those Israelis who were at the top 10% of income earners in Israel made 13% more than those located at the bottom 10%.
A committee of ten government regulators was formed by the Israeli government in October 2010 investigate the issue of the control of the wealth by the tycoons. In 2012, they recommended dismantling the pyramids, hoping that once these were broken up, the prices would go down due to greater competition. It would also help the average Israeli and address the issue of income inequality.
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