Posted on 09/09/2004 12:03:25 PM PDT by anotherview
Thursday, September 09, 2004
On Israeli technology and American outsourcing
I saw an interesting piece on Israeli television (IBA News in English, via satellite) claiming that Israel is the second most important technology center after Silicon Valley in California. The statistics cited were startling. The number of new technology startups in Israel is roughly 25% of the number of those in the United States. In addition, the amount of venture capital invested in Israeli technology startups is also around 25% of thet in the United States. What makes these numbers so amazing is that Israel is a tiny nation of six million people, compared to 275 million plus in the U.S. in a huge land area.
They went on to cite how ubiquitous Israeli technology is. One example: the computer I am writing on is based on an Intel Pentium CPU. The Pentium architecture was developed by Intel in Haifa. The list of examples went on and on, the upshot of which is that everyone in the world, even those in nations who hate Israel, use Israeli technology each and every day of their lives.
Based on my own experience I find the report totally believable. Israeli culture places a high value on advanced education. More Israelis have college degrees by percentage than Americans, and most middle class Israelis continue their education, a class here and a class there, througout their working lives. One thing Israel does not do is export it's high tech jobs. In the U.S. high tech hiring is expected to drop by 50% from 2003 levels this year. In contrast, in Israel, high tech is the fastest growing sector of the economy with hiring and wages surpassing all other industries.
I would argue that in outsourcing so much high tech to India and other Asian destinations the U.S. is likely to lose it's ability to produce cutting edge technology. In addition, many American innovations will end up in countries where patent law is not enforced and will be duplicated and sold at a deep discount.
Leadership in technological innovation is key to the economic future and national defense of both Israel and the United States. This is one area where the U.S. could learn a thing or two from Israel, or, more correctly, can relearn the lessons that were taught to Israel by the American example of technological innovation and entrepreneurship in the first place.
The Jews have been a war target for thousands of years, the most recent example having 50% of their population killed 50 years ago. This has the evolutionary effect of selecting for those good at surviving war, which in part includes the Einstein types. This human evolutionary process has resulted in the Jews being some of the smartest people on Earth. Genetics is only a raw material though. Culture and education is just as important.
In America we are losing our cultural edge to snakes like Hillary, who put the lazy worm of socialism into apples on our trees.
Further, Israel is a young coutnry. Many things we don't do here are better over the short period of time: Japan's investment in R&D in behaldf of the private sector seemed to produce better results in 1970s, but now thet can't get out of the econ0omic rut for twenty years (for the same reason).
I did not find a single good point in this article.
Well, let me correct the last sentence: the high value traditionally placed on education in the Jewish culture does pay off. We need more of the same here but are dumbing down our culture and education instead.
Israel began moving away from socialism under Begin and that process is now being completed by Ariel Sharon and Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Israel is very much an American-style free market economy today. I'm afraid your information is out of date.
The success in Israel's tech sector is driven entirely by the private sector, not by the moribund, budget strapped governmental sector.
For the first time ever it was easier for me to find work, and better work, in Israel than in America. That should have been impossible considering how much moving to Israel used to mean deep sacrifice for American Jews. No more.
Yes, Israel is doing a lot right. I also think the U.S. is doing a lot wrong in terms of promoting technological innovation in America.
Israel began moving away from socialism under Begin and that process is now being completed by Ariel Sharon and Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Israel is very much an American-style free market economy today. I'm afraid your information is out of date.
The success in Israel's tech sector is driven entirely by the private sector, not by the moribund, budget strapped governmental sector.
For the first time ever it was easier for me to find work, and better work, in Israel than in America. That should have been impossible considering how much moving to Israel used to mean deep sacrifice for American Jews. No more.
Yes, Israel is doing a lot right. I also think the U.S. is doing a lot wrong in terms of promoting technological innovation in America.
Ooops. Sorry for the duplicate post. My browser did something weird.
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