Kappa21

I had this topic on my mind for a little while now and i wanted to ask you about it and see your ideas.....


After the 1990 collapse and the reboune of the Israeli Shekel (now the new israeli shekel) israeli life has changed dramatically. Not to say that before the last 17 or so years prior to 1990 it didnt as well. We had seen a dramatic swing from Israel being a 3rd world country that needed aide and support to a country that now gives support.

After 1990, with the event of Peace and the opening of markets both in Israel and abroad, Israel saw itself as being in the forfront of globalization and radicallyzing itself to a freer and open market where Capital dictates what we will do.

Still, Israel's Trade deficit (if anyone cares) is pretty high. Being a small nation like Israel with little or no natural supplies...we can only hope to get alot from other countries (China, Vietnam, etc..) for goods.

But is this a good thing or a bad thing? I mean..... we really took out our own industry's that we once had. We cannot simply say that we can make a toy now cause now we just give the operations to China. So alot of it did change.

And ofcourse, us being Skyscraper lovers...we also introduced a more metropolitan cities for us aving had more people in the Tel Aviv area and making things expensive in Tel Aviv..someitmes so expensive that some people cannot afford to live there..

So whats ur take on Israel and globalism?

Livni

kappa, the israeli oil is high tech, which cant live without globalization.
in 1990 there were 5000 less high tech companies than there are now.
in 1990 our foreign investment was close to zero, now its over $20 billion
this year alone and thats a year we had both war and elections in.
globaliziation means israeli construction companies are now inolved in buildingin 60 countries, yes - 60!
almost every field, its today not a question of if, no country can survive alone end of story. the good thing is that our hightech "oil" for investment is maybe 1/100th of what its potential for growth still is.
multinational big companies means israeli exports reach new markets, upgrade their quality, and for a small country its
probably the only way to grow a big industry. Just see teva, from a local small company it has managed to grown to
the worlds largest generic drug maker through globalization, nothing else.
the success here of local companies probably employs 2 times more overseas people, but it also means that the centers here can grow
like r&d, production, management.
our field is not toys, textiles or consumer goods, we dont have huge workforce, our advantage is inventions and patents and creativity.
if china mass makes boxes, what we can do is invent better boxes and sell the idea. we will never be china, and if you look at EU countries being one big block hasnt helped them be a "china" also, their economies still function apart, just look what happened when Volkswagen closed this week a plant in Brussels..
our fields are high tech, medical tech, biotech, water tech, agriculture tech, software - they will only grow and grow in future.
If you look at small countries our size they all follow the same model of specialization, if its switzerland or if its new zealand.
So there is no going back we have to be the best in what we do, and you can see the results.

__________________
Did you know - Israel's landscape is per size, the most diverse landscape on planet earth, with 4 climate regions, snow peaks to sandunes, unique flora, fauna & climates mixing and crossing over from 3continents. for example - 500 million(!) birds use Israel's sky to migrate twice a year from the northern hemisphere to the south and back.

Kappa21

But we cant think of 1 segment of a society. Im talking a society as a whole...

20 years ago, we thought that tourism would be good. We didnt even open up air space and cut on tickets. Plus violence and uncertainty hasnt help that much.

Israel is a small country and we didnt have a industrial revolution in Israel. We had small segments..
but you talk high tech this and high that, as if high tech is good. Let me remind you that we still have a textile industry in Israel and it can be hurt.

Plus who knows if Israeli high tech one day will have to compete with chinese, indian and far eastern high tech for the lowest possible price to invent something.

Either case, its the small things that matter not the high tech as a whole. Things like privatization sometimes hurts the israeli economy. The best privatization for israel is the phone system. Other than that, think if Railways or buses would be privatize. Than you can have the supply/demand go in and since the demand is high, and supply is low..prices will sky rocket on top of variables like gas and maintanance.. Think if you had to pay 100 shekels to get from Haifa to Tel Aviv... instead of 33....

Livni

In small countries with small markets its hard to have competition when you privatize, thats why Im against privatization of too much things, public transport is one of them. we had it here and actually it lowered prices of buses, but it also means
that far away small places will be cut out cause they dont make profit.
so you cant privatize everything. phone lines - theres a little competition now between 2 companies and it will grow.

tourism we cant build entire economy on it, even if its 1-3% of economy its too much of an unstable sector. but it should be AT LEAST twice as high as now considering the potential so there is room to grow, I agree air rates was a big problem but it will change. You have to think too much tourism makes the places crowded, can destroy nature, make places too much touristic. Israel is still quiet a cheap place to visit if you calculate the entire vacation with food and travel and entry costs. for less than a week in london you could stay here for a month.
tel aviv isnt expensive, whats expensive is the real estate, and its good so more people will spread out if they cant afford it.

dont woory after high tech theres bio tech, nano tech, water tech, clean alternative energy.. I think we just started to scratch the surface of the surface in the future possibilities. If even 10% of the defense budget could go more to R&D, you would see things that will come out from here in 5 years, today.

__________________
Did you know - Israel's landscape is per size, the most diverse landscape on planet earth, with 4 climate regions, snow peaks to sandunes, unique flora, fauna & climates mixing and crossing over from 3continents. for example - 500 million(!) birds use Israel's sky to migrate twice a year from the northern hemisphere to the south and back.

Kappa21

i know..
but what about the whole commericalization...

everything is marketed...you turn around and you see a billboard....
you go everywhere and there is a billboard..its like were immune to it.

When i left Israel i would never sleep at night until i saw the commercials have 9pm news on Channel 1.
Now i cant stand it...
well not Israeli commericals..but at whole...