“How do you think so many kollel families in Eretz Yisroel manage?”
The answer is that by modern standards they don’t manage.
They have no car, their children never have new clothes or new shoes. The don’t eat meat or chicken during the week. They do not know what the inside of a restaurant looks like, nor take-out, nor pizza. Their weddings cost $7 a plate and they invite only family. The friends eat kugel and borekas. They have never had a vacation and certainly have never been on a plane to go anywhere.
You have never heard about them because they don’t have internet, their wives don’t have jobs in hi-tech, they don’t speak English, and they don’t have a generous stipend from Tattie in Monsey for their Year-in-the-Mir. They don’t parade up and down Rechov Paran or Malchei Yisrael in $3,000 sheitels and Silver Cross carriages. They live on what they have and in a good case, they have emunah that HKBH will not let them starve. In a “not good” case, their marriages and families fall apart. And there are thousands of these families. A far cry from the situation in America.
The chareidi parties in the medinah were elected for one reason only. That is to force the medinah to provide these families with more money for sustenance, not luxuries. Thanks to the chareidi parties, all children up to age 18 have free dental care and optometric care, meaning free glasses once a year. Medical care has always been free or almost free for those with low incomes. The medinah also provides each family with a modest sum, more for those with many children. It’s something, but it is not a lot.
They don’t really manage.