This is old but it&#x27;s a good example: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.seattletimes.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;how-israel-saved-intel&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.seattletimes.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;how-israel-saved-intel&#x2F;</a><p>Israel is very very very focused on high technology, much more so than the US. It&#x27;s the reason for their economic success, and they have the human capital to be good at it.<p>Since the US (people in the US) can do lots of things for income, it doesn&#x27;t have that hyper focus and strong need to be great at tech.<p>On top of that Israel has a huge need for technology for defense which is an even stronger motivator (for example every military vehicle sold by the US to Israel has no electronics, instead Israel puts in it&#x27;s own custom stuff).<p>It works out for the US anyway because the US is such a great ally to Israel that virtually all the tech is immediately shared between the two countries (and that includes the military with secret stuff - people think US aid to Israel is a one way street, but nothing could be further from the truth).<p>&gt; but their economy just isn&#x27;t big enough to be ahead technology-wise.<p>First the economy is shared with the US in many ways. Second technology is all about brainpower, and Israel has that. It&#x27;s not about quantity, it&#x27;s about quality.