The ignorance of basic economic and political realities here is truly astounding.
First – I live in a country with socialized medicine. It is paid for not only through basic income taxes but also through a surcharge based on salary. So someone who is deliberately not reaching a threshold for income tax is not paying for their medical coverage. Believe it or not, Israel is not the only place where such imbalances exist, nor the only place where they are remarked upon. The rational argument is that IF a person is incapable of supporting the system, the society has a responsibility to sustain him. But IF a person has the capacity to earn and support the system that funds his medical care, but chooses not to – for whatever reason, then the rest of society will see this as an inequity.
As well, many here have remarked that University students get many of the same subsidies as those learning full time. What they conveniently forget when they make that argument, is that nearly all those in University have completed their military or national service before setting foot in the university or being eligible for subsidies (an exception is made for students in special programs for technical positions in the IDF, where the students go to university first and bring to bear their engineering or other skills when they enter the IDF immediately after graduation. They usually consent to serve an extra year. At Machon Lev, in Yerushalayim, there are a number of students doing this, Learning in the Beis Medrash in the morning and studying engineering in the afternoon/evening, and then entering the IDF. Machon Lev/JCT is a wonderful example, and it also has Chareidi oriented non IDF engineering programs for men and women). Since these students have completed their service, and are then eligible, they wonder why others are eligible without service.
I’ve mentioned before that those things never discussed that enter into the discussion include intangibles, like government subsidies for corporations that employ Chareidim and others in high tech, or in underdeveloped parts of the country. Yes, the government would do it anyways, but the tax breaks or other incentives ultimately cost money that comes from taxpayers. If people are deliberately keeping themselves under the income tax threshhold, they are not carrying a proportionate share of the economic burden.
It goes without saying that legislation enacted more than 60 years ago to address the reality at the time cannot be held up as eternal law. Governments come and go, and their decisions in all democracies change. It is a wonder it lasted this long. Shall postage cost the same now as in 1948 because the government determined it cost 2 agorot at the time? Should malls and markets in Israel not have metal detectors and security guards because they didn’t have them in 1948? The idea is ludicrous, as is the insistence on Ben Gurion’s writ being extended leolom voed.
Finally, I don’t disagree with the concept that Torah learning provides an incalculably valuable service for every resident and citizen of Israel. It makes sense to me. The problem is, I don’t need to be convinced, the electorate does. Israel is a democracy, and in a democracy, you have to convince people to support your position, and vote for it. It is the height of arrogance to assume people will accept your dictate, as if you are a paragon of virtue, probity, and perfection, instead of being, like I am, a Jew who tries to do what Hashem wants and more often than not doesn’t fully succeed. To do this the people of Israel have to be brought to a love of Torah, regardless of whether they are Zionist, anti Zionist, leftist, rightist, centrist, secular traditional, atheist, or anarchist. If you want their vote, you have to do a better job of getting them to love Torah, because right now, its not working. If they don’t love Torah, then you have lost.