Israeli kibbutzim, once the pride and joy of socialists around the world, are dying a slow death, at least as far as socialism is concerned. As an economic experiment, kibbutzim were never very successful, relying for years on heavy subsidies from Labor-dominated Israeli governments to thrive. When Labor lost power in the late seventies, the majority of the subsidies went away, leading to bankruptcies, privatizations, and a general decline in kibbutz fortunes, exacerbated by an inability of the founders to pass on their socialistic fervor to the next generation.
I actually lived on a kibbutz, Revadim, for three weeks in 1985. The kibbutz, affiliated with the leftist Hashomer Hatzair, still had a children’s house–children spent only two hours per day with their parents (itself a compromise on original socialist principle), spending the rest of their days and nights in communal living. I can’t say that the principles or lifestyle were to my taste, but voluntary socialism can easily coexist with a libertarian society. So, shed a small tear for the decline of kibbutz socialism, another failed experiment in human coexistence.
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