The Collapse of Socialism in Israel

Update – A recent story covered by Reuters entitled “Ditching socialist roots, kibbutz makes a comeback“.   It appears we have another recent case study where Socialism is being replaced by Capitalism…

Sept 21, 2007 – Many of you may not be aware that modern Socialism saw a growth spurt in the early 1930’s with the creation of  the Kibbutz in Israel.  For those of you not familiar with Israeli history, a Kibbutz is a collective farm or settlement that is owned by its members.   It was a home for displaced Jews to come and quickly become part of a new community.  Many of the Ashkenazi Jews from Europe resettled in Israel after the holocaust and entered life in the Kibbutz.

The economists Gary Becker and Richard Posner write about the Transformation of the Kibbutz.   They note that the influence of the Kibbutz has been replaced by capitalism and the high-tech industry in Israel, and they further note: “The transformation of the kibbutz movement from avowedly socialist to mainly capitalist shows clearly in microcosm what happened in socialist countries… they ignored the evidence of history that self interest and family orientation is not the product of capitalism, but is human nature.”

3 comments

  1. You have explained this well, Have you been working on this a long time?? Do you think you have described everything correctly though I have noticed some common mistakes but I get the point your making? I will link your blog to mine.

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