Shareable Lifestyle

Sharing Economy in Israel ** Lessons Learned from the Kibbutz Israel has a long history of sharing resources, even before it became a state in 1948. Shortly after the 1905 Bolshevik revolution, small groups of Jews escaped Russia to avoid persecution. Accustomed to sharing property, they established collective farms to start a new life in a hostile, arid environment. They called this new working and living arrangement a Kibbutz. The kibbutz structure was instrumental in helping the new immigrants establish themselves and became part of the early Israel success story. But the success didn’t last and Israel became primarily a capitalist, consumption-based economy. Start-Up Nation: Ready-made for Collaborative Consumption As chronicled in “Start-Up Nation,” Israelis are extremely entrepreneurial and tech-savvy, both as developers and users. Even without the kibbutz experience, this would make Israelis better suited to a collaborative consumption system than most people. There are plenty of imaginative, talented young developers ready to build a new sharing platform, venture capital to support them, and a public receptive to the concept. The Occupy Movement and the Sharing Economy The September 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement, with its focus on economic and power inequality, quickly spread across the globe. In Israel, it landed on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel-Aviv – center for the noveau riche who prospered the most from the country’s high-tech industry. It also led many Israelis to jump on board the Collaborative Consumption band wagon. We have been actively tracking the various forms that Israelis can participate in the movement and sharing them on this blog. We routinely hear of new services and share them with our blog’s readers and ask them to do the same.