So if you need a reason to learn Hebrew online, the recently released book Startup Nation: The Miracle of Israel’s Economic Miracle may prove you right. The book reveals the incredible history and transformation of the Israeli economy from a government controlled socialist economic system to a free market capitalist model that has resulted in incredible change in the Israeli economy.
Evidence of the transformation lies in the tremendous rise of Israeli high-tech companies that now form the second largest group of companies on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The staggering amount of venture capital flowing into Israel is matched only by the number of American high-tech companies working in tandem with their Israeli counterparts in a number of different areas ranging from microprocessors to cell phones.
The crux of the argument is quite simple. The shift from a centrally controlled model in which most major services and manufacturing were owned by the government to private companies and an openness to encourage entrepreneurship among its citizens has given a small nation with no natural resources, apart from a force highly educated workforce, serious non-trade with any of their immediate neighbors, the ability to innovate and manufacture high-tech products at the forefront of their respective fields.
Authors Dan Senor and Paul Singer go so far as to argue that the process of starting a new business is, in many ways, much simpler in Israel than it is in the United States today. A few years ago, this would have been unthinkable and should serve as a challenge and encouragement for the United States to use its unique resources and creative past to recreate or revitalize itself as the undisputed world leader in entrepreneurial creativity.