/* This reporter has contacted hundreds of Synagogues throughout the United States to obtain starvation casualty statistics resulting from this incident so far, but Rabbis have not returned my phone calls. “I don’t think the Jewish community can survive at this point without Rubashkin,” said Mordechai Yitzhaky, the owner of Kosher Mart in Rockville. */ This was meant to be a satirical article, but someone over at Digg posted a link (= http://youtube.com/watch?v=L7JmCLYZVl0) to a YouTube video where a guy discusses a 'kosher tax' that all Americans pay on food products when only 2% of the population is Jewish (and probably 20% of that 2% keeps kosher). Some good points, but I wonder is the 'kosher tax' (1) a reflection of pork barreling by Jewish lobbyists and lawmakers (seems to be the assumption of the guy in the video); (2) a reflection of the fact that Jews have greater wealth, so getting every little thing you make certified kosher is a good way to avoid excluding the group with the most purchasing, media, and corporate power, which can be your friend or your enemy when you're trying to sell a product; (3) a reflection of the fact that most brands are actually owned by larger conglomerates that are actually run by Jewish men (or have a lot of Jewish men on their boards), who probably feel pressure to ensure their products are kosher (in much the same way that Christian men fifty years ago were expected to make sure their companies did nothing 'not Christian'); or (4) some combination of the above?If pork barreling is involved, and I suspect it is, it must be ended, just as all pork barreling must be ended. It's an insult, and an injury, to taxpayers. If it's just a reflection of the pro-semitic, or Judeocentric, culture of many companies, then it's really up to the customers to decide what they want, and, given the dominant position Jews hold within American society, there's no way in hell that any company is going to risk offending them by not playing their game, any more than any company would have risked offending whites or Christians fifty years ago.Anyway, this kosher tax, if it truly exists, pales in comparison to the illegitimate taxes we pay for cow meat, milk, and cheese (just to name a few). I remember an Economist article from the 1990's showing that beef would cost around $12/lb if it weren't for all the tax subsidies we pay to large agriculture corporations, through the magic of corporate welfare.
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