6 ms·

I've been thinking about some way to have a communal setup like this but on a much smaller scale, and with some of the group working remotely at tech industry p

I've been thinking about some way to have a communal setup like this but on a much smaller scale, and with some of the group working remotely at tech industry programming salaries. So you'd have 2-3 people working remotely in tech, bringing in 100k USD each (low estimate for full time, or maybe they don't want to work full time). Another 4-6 people working in the commune and handling the cooking, maintenance, working the farm/garden, child care, etc. And since it's a commune, the money earned by the remote workers is put into a common pool and used to buy all the food, medical insurance, health care, clothes, etc. The farm would probably provide all the meat and a lot of the vegetables, but you'd still need to buy a lot of other foods. And hopefully, eventually the commune would figure out a successful business and the remote developers could eventually quit and work on the commune as well, if they wanted =) Thoughts?

taneq 8y ago
Sounds nice if you can do it and are happy living that lifestyle while carrying a bunch of others financially (and I don't mean to rule it out, I might consider such a thing.) > And hopefully, eventually the commune would figure out a successful business and the remote developers could eventually quit and work on the commune as well, if they wanted =) Who would work at the business? Would the commune eventually turn into an investment bank?
- socialist_coder 8y ago
  The business would be worked by whoever was interested in it. You'd have to be splitting the hours between the farm/cooking/childcare and working on the business. I think with 4-6 other members, there would be enough time for both. I am thinking a business that produces something tangible, something along the lines of the nut butter factory. Ideally, it would make use of some part of your commune or the local community. But I suppose an investment bank would work if that was what your other members were interested in =) Heck, maybe the other people want to do tech stuff too and collectively you launch a site or app or something. But with only 4-6 people I think the kind of business really depends on the interests and abilities of the group. > while carrying a bunch of others financially You can think of it like that but I don't think that's really a true sentiment. Think of what you, the tech worker, are getting out of the arrangement: * you get to live on a working farm * organic home cooked meals partially made from your own home grown ingredients * all your meat & eggs are self raised and high quality * your kids are raised on your property by your extended family, and you have babysitters whenever you need it * your SO (who is one of the 4-6 others), who can't find a good job living in the country, becomes more than just a "stay at home parent" and can do fulfilling and interesting things on the farm commune As a solo person, or couple, can you get this by working full time and then paying for it? Sure, you can live in the country, and you can buy all your food from farmers markets, and you can pay for babysitters and childcare, and you might be able to get a similar result, but it just seems more fun if you can do it with some of your close family & friends who have similar ideals.
  - three_dot_4342 8y ago
    > As a solo person, or couple, can you get this by working full time and then paying for it? Most of this I can get, assuming I'm the one pulling down the 1st world software dev salary. Obviously, those on the commune who only have basic skills of food prep, farming, child care, etc. wouldn't be able to afford some of this. So if I'm already able to make this high salary working remotely, I might as well just live in a very low COL country and outsource all this work for a fraction it would cost in the US / EU, instead of subsidizing the low-earners.
    - okeydokeypokey 8y ago
      whoosh
    - socialist_coder 8y ago
      A very low COL country is not without it's own risks and problems. * It could be political unstable. * You might have to pay for 24/7 armed security due to local crime and bad police. * Locals will constantly be trying to rip you off. * You will have to learn the local language or be at a huge disadvantage. * Buying property is going to be tricky and you could get screwed. * Buying stuff is more difficult because you are in a foreign country. No more amazon.com or any of the cool tech stuff you see on HN (most of that stuff is US/EU only) * Your family & friends are back in the US. You are very very isolated unless you really want to build a whole new life in the new country. I have experienced some of these challenges myself, living in Germany and not speaking the language. It's not easy. You might not realize how different it is from the US until you try to do more than just be a tourist. Like, you think you understand the govt and what paperwork you need to do, but it will be completely different in this other country, and all the documentation and forms are in a foreign language. Good luck figuring this out unless you have a trusted local to help you. So it's not a total slam dunk, there are a lot of trade offs here. That isn't to say it isn't a good option for some people, especially if they know the language. I know a family doing this kind of thing in Indonesia and they are living a great life just by monetizing their youtube videos. I think for me, it would be a better option if you had some kind of tie to the new country. Maybe a SO that was from there, some extended family, some close friends, just something.
barry-cotter 8y ago
That level of commitment is historically impossible to maintain except for religious groups and very difficult for them. Communist groups and other similarly ideologically committed groups sometimes manage it for a while but perpetuating it across generations has thus far proved impossible. Look at the Israeli kibbutzim for an example.
- socialist_coder 8y ago
  Not to say I disagree with you, but is the level of commitment different from the commune in the original post? I feel like its pretty similar, and that commune has been able to thrive.
  - barry-cotter 8y ago
    If you want the commune to function as a commune, from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs, yes it is. People change and their life circumstances change. They have children and they are much more motivated to provide for theirs than to provide for those of their commune mates. Some people are much more productive than others and with the best will in the world, not always available, they get tired of putting in more than an equal share and getting out an equal one. You don’t get celibate quasi-monastic communities outside religious ones and those are the only examples I’m aware of that perpetuate themselves across generations in a strict communal fashion. Even with multigenerational religious communities they don’t generally share a large portion of property communally. The Hutterites, Amish and similar groups function as communities with strong norms, a great deal of community self help and group decision making but most property is held at the household level. And they generally fission somewhere between 50 and 100 families when coordination problems and group communication gets unwieldy. If the commune does ninetieth percentile well they’ll keep drama and internal feuding to a minimum, with no one “stealing” anyone else’s spouse and it’ll eventually turn into a co-op with most people holding a lot of individual property.
  - mercutio2 8y ago
    The most long-term successful secular income-sharing communities have been the ones that: A) Chose to be large. Small groups can have a harder time weathering a single bad experience, and have trouble maintaining social dynamism for varied age cohorts B) Had strong enough systems to exclude free loaders. Everyone’s approach to this differs, but it’s a pre-condition to giving everyone a sense of common ownership and avoiding resentment C) Found a meaningful business into which new members could be trained relatively easily and that people don’t hate. Programming is unfortunately not a skill that’s easy to teach to sizable fractions of people joining communes, and lots of the people who are attracted to communes want to spend less time on a computer, not more
brusch64 8y ago
I am sorry if this is not really the point of your post, but I am reminded of watching the movie "Meine keine Familie". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2917962/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2917962/ As mich as i know there is no English version but it is a movie about someone growing up in a commune in Austria in the 70ies. It is a very interesting and sad movie. The "founding father" of this commune spent time in prison because of child molestation and harassment. His mother still thought that he "had a good childhood and time" in the commune without knowing his father. As much as I know from the movie he wasn't molested - but he experienced growing up there as a very strict and unfree experience (I am not sure if this is totally correct, but my memories are shady, I've watched it many years ago)
jnmandal 8y ago
I've thought about something similar. I think a 3-4 person consultancy could actually be run well as a co-op. It's not ideal though. It would be better to have some sort of agricultural tangible export from the community I think.
ada1981 8y ago
I’m working on a similar project. We acquired our first land in Panama (http://Majagual.org http://Majagual.org) We also are planning an alt-school system in which instead of going to college, you and 100 other students boot up a cooperative eco-village that you own outright. You’ve got food, shelter and community handled with no loans and then you can focus on other projects, research, etc. Imagine running this coop with automation and robotics. You could free up more time while increasing the lifestyle of the members. And of course, I already co-own a $50MM cooperative grocery store with about 16,000 others in NYC (FoodCoop.com)
- CPLX 8y ago
  > you and 100 other students boot up a coooerstive eco-village that you own outright Are you able to convey this idea in English? It sounds interesting.
- oh_sigh 8y ago
  What exactly is the point of that island? It looks like you can't actually develop on it, and it is so small that it is basically a day trip at best.
  - ada1981 8y ago
    It’s about 100 acres in total and quite well suited for development actually. Solid basalt rock along with jungle lowlands and plenty of sand. Right now we have a small group of Founding Family and we are hosting small gatherings (Max 150 people).
- mtbomb 8y ago
  It seems like an island in the tropics would be a poor choice for something like this. Mosquitos and difficult access to mainland services?
  - ada1981 8y ago
    We haven’t had a huge issues with mosquitos. While Panama City is about 50km away, we are just 5km from Chiman which is a fishing village with a police station, medical outpost, church, food, etc. There is also a road being put in between Chiman and the Pan American Highway which will allow for one to drive down and then take a 10min boat ride. Right now the aesthetic is very much a burning man camp, with people bringing in what is needed and leaving no trace - however we will begin to create some light shared infrastructure. We also have a small shared ownership stake in a tiny home in Kalu Yala which is an eco village on the mainland. Come visit sometime! PS, we don’t plan to export food, our primary export will be culture and transformation — meaning we have companies and individuals who come for coaching / leadership training / etc and for the festival.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
AngrySkillzz 8y ago
Twin Oaks already does this - they grow most of their own food, have a few external businesses, and I'm pretty sure a few of their members have external jobs (at least one of which is a programmer, if I remember). They practice "income sharing," so all money goes into a common pool and is spent on the needs of the community.
- socialist_coder 8y ago
  I read their articles on income sharing, but it doesn't mention if the income sharing is truly 100% communist, or if there is some kind of specific $ amount you need to contribute, and then everything on top of that is yours (or you could choose to work less hours). Do you know any specifics?
  - mercutio2 8y ago
    Income sharing is 100% for income from labor at Twin Oaks. Passive income is a grey area, some people lend their assets to the community to avoid earning passive income, but I don't think that's ever been enforced.
netcan 8y ago
If you're serious I suggest you look into the israeli kibbutz movement. It has 100 years experience across 300 communes. Total turnover of all kibbutz businesses is currently about $10bn. A lot of people have had the idea you have, starting a modern commune... a spectrum from Leo Tolstoy to charles manson. Very few were sustainable in the long term, or scalable. The Kibbutz movement was a rare example that was. Most are semi-privatized these days. A handful are still "traditional" (extreme) with no private property and children raised by the community instead of living with their parents.
Reason077 8y ago
I noticed that almost all the photos in the article feature meat or meat production. Seems a little odd to me, but I guess even many hippies are raging carnivores in America. Are vegans welcome at this commune?
- vorpalhex 8y ago
  It seems like everyone in the community does a lot of manual labor, and it's really hard to get a ton of calories from a vegan diet especially when you need to feed 73 people. Dairy and meat are calorie and nutrient dense. There are some fruits/vegetables/nuts that are as well of course, but it sounds like they mostly sell their nut butters.
  - rejoice 8y ago
    They eat a lot of nut butter. The best nut butter is when they switch production from almond butter to cashew butter, there's like 50lbs of nut butter that comes out that is (::gasp!::) mixed in unknown amounts, so it can't be sold with accurate packaging. Hot tip, almond/cashew butter is amazingly delicious regardless of what proportions you mix it in.
- mercutio2 8y ago
  There were tons of happy vegans at East Wind last time I was there. For common meals, East Wind wasn’t quite as on top of the wide variety of dietary preferences people express as Twin Oaks was last time I checked, but vegans are most definitely welcome.
- wes-k 8y ago
  Someday we’ll have our own tech forward vegan commune! This is a big dream of mine!!
mercutio2 8y ago
If you are in North America, you should try getting in touch with the Federation of Egalitarian Communities [0]. It’s a very tight-knit network of exclusively income-sharing, democratic, secular modern communities which includes East Wind (the subject of the article) and Twin Oaks (the earliest FEC community, from which many other communities have sprung). The FEC has frequent meetings, practices labor exchange between their communities, and generally will enthusiastically help you understand historical approaches to income-sharing, and help you build systems and structures of your own. Be aware they will generally recommend that you try living in an existing income-sharing community for a year to get a handle on community dynamics and systems before you go off and found your own new community. New communities have a habit of falling apart because of either poor systems, or founder-syndrome where the founder wants to be egalitarian, but is so invested in their dream that they alienate their allies by refusing to let go and trust other people. Also, people who want to join income-sharing communities tend to range from very- to extremely-anti-authoritarian. This can be hard for founders, who are trying to get stuff done and think they can keep doing things they way they did when they got started. So founding is hard, you really need good systems, good co-founding community members, and the ability to detach and trust-but-verify the energetic but unproven new members that will inevitably make or break your community. [0] http://thefec.org http://thefec.org
- komali2 8y ago
  Doctorow tackled this in "Walkaway," a novel that takes the commune concept all the way to the end - what if the only form of community organization on the planet was the commune? They often used Wikis and other distributed messaging platforms to trade tips. It was really fascinating to read.
- boonewheeler 8y ago
  Do you live in an FEC community?
  - mercutio2 8y ago
    I haven't for over a decade. I love the FEC communities, though! If my wife was up for it, I'd happily move back. One of the challenges of commune life is certainly the size of the dating pool.
TaylorAlexander 8y ago
I’m all for this and am actively working towards it! I’m a robotics engineer and I want to live in a partially automated commune with some like minded people. I think there are real mental, economic, and ecological benefits to living this way. See my three essay series on the subject: http://tlalexander.com/wealth/ http://tlalexander.com/wealth/ http://tlalexander.com/machine/ http://tlalexander.com/machine/ http://tlalexander.com/corporation/ http://tlalexander.com/corporation/ See also the philosophy of Communalism: http://www.communalismpamphlet.net/ http://www.communalismpamphlet.net/ There are many other people interested in this. One enthusiastic online community I’ve found is this one: https://tkcooptech.tumblr.com/ https://tkcooptech.tumblr.com/ They have a discord I can invite you to if you email me (see profile). Finally see my discussion site on building automated societies at http://reboot.love http://reboot.love I believe the reboot concepts (more developed in my head than in my writing) can extend to whole cities and beyond. I think smaller communes could popularize the ideas and free up some people to be more politically active. The small communes would be a vanguard but the goal is to reach everyone, not just rich techies who want to unplug.
jtbayly 8y ago
Sounds a bit like a traditional family. One man making a fair bit of money. One woman handling domestic work, including producing some food and buying the rest. When you have kids they help as they get older. All the money is pooled. Eventually the man retires.
dv_dt 8y ago
I've come across some tech organizations that facilitate this kind of collective. I don't know how effective it is, but there do seem to be many at least small collectives signed into it. https://opencollective.com/ https://opencollective.com/
paxus 8y ago
This idea has been out there for a while. A small number of highly paid tech people providing the financial backbone of a larger community. And in a way, Dancing Rabbit started this way. But for as good an idea as it sounds, it turns out quite difficult to pull off. Even if the tech folks are living in the community it basically does not work for a small number of people to be disproportionately carrying the financial burden of the collective.
- socialist_coder 8y ago
  What problems do they run into to make it not work? If the tech people are married to non-tech people, would that change the equation?

taneq 8y ago

Sounds nice if you can do it and are happy living that lifestyle while carrying a bunch of others financially (and I don't mean to rule it out, I might consider such a thing.) > And hopefully, eventually the commune would figure out a successful business and the remote developers could eventually quit and work on the commune as well, if they wanted =) Who would work at the business? Would the commune eventually turn into an investment bank?

socialist_coder 8y ago
The business would be worked by whoever was interested in it. You'd have to be splitting the hours between the farm/cooking/childcare and working on the business. I think with 4-6 other members, there would be enough time for both. I am thinking a business that produces something tangible, something along the lines of the nut butter factory. Ideally, it would make use of some part of your commune or the local community. But I suppose an investment bank would work if that was what your other members were interested in =) Heck, maybe the other people want to do tech stuff too and collectively you launch a site or app or something. But with only 4-6 people I think the kind of business really depends on the interests and abilities of the group. > while carrying a bunch of others financially You can think of it like that but I don't think that's really a true sentiment. Think of what you, the tech worker, are getting out of the arrangement: * you get to live on a working farm * organic home cooked meals partially made from your own home grown ingredients * all your meat & eggs are self raised and high quality * your kids are raised on your property by your extended family, and you have babysitters whenever you need it * your SO (who is one of the 4-6 others), who can't find a good job living in the country, becomes more than just a "stay at home parent" and can do fulfilling and interesting things on the farm commune As a solo person, or couple, can you get this by working full time and then paying for it? Sure, you can live in the country, and you can buy all your food from farmers markets, and you can pay for babysitters and childcare, and you might be able to get a similar result, but it just seems more fun if you can do it with some of your close family & friends who have similar ideals.
- three_dot_4342 8y ago
  > As a solo person, or couple, can you get this by working full time and then paying for it? Most of this I can get, assuming I'm the one pulling down the 1st world software dev salary. Obviously, those on the commune who only have basic skills of food prep, farming, child care, etc. wouldn't be able to afford some of this. So if I'm already able to make this high salary working remotely, I might as well just live in a very low COL country and outsource all this work for a fraction it would cost in the US / EU, instead of subsidizing the low-earners.
  - okeydokeypokey 8y ago
    whoosh
  - socialist_coder 8y ago
    A very low COL country is not without it's own risks and problems. * It could be political unstable. * You might have to pay for 24/7 armed security due to local crime and bad police. * Locals will constantly be trying to rip you off. * You will have to learn the local language or be at a huge disadvantage. * Buying property is going to be tricky and you could get screwed. * Buying stuff is more difficult because you are in a foreign country. No more amazon.com or any of the cool tech stuff you see on HN (most of that stuff is US/EU only) * Your family & friends are back in the US. You are very very isolated unless you really want to build a whole new life in the new country. I have experienced some of these challenges myself, living in Germany and not speaking the language. It's not easy. You might not realize how different it is from the US until you try to do more than just be a tourist. Like, you think you understand the govt and what paperwork you need to do, but it will be completely different in this other country, and all the documentation and forms are in a foreign language. Good luck figuring this out unless you have a trusted local to help you. So it's not a total slam dunk, there are a lot of trade offs here. That isn't to say it isn't a good option for some people, especially if they know the language. I know a family doing this kind of thing in Indonesia and they are living a great life just by monetizing their youtube videos. I think for me, it would be a better option if you had some kind of tie to the new country. Maybe a SO that was from there, some extended family, some close friends, just something.

barry-cotter 8y ago

That level of commitment is historically impossible to maintain except for religious groups and very difficult for them. Communist groups and other similarly ideologically committed groups sometimes manage it for a while but perpetuating it across generations has thus far proved impossible. Look at the Israeli kibbutzim for an example.

socialist_coder 8y ago
Not to say I disagree with you, but is the level of commitment different from the commune in the original post? I feel like its pretty similar, and that commune has been able to thrive.
- barry-cotter 8y ago
  If you want the commune to function as a commune, from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs, yes it is. People change and their life circumstances change. They have children and they are much more motivated to provide for theirs than to provide for those of their commune mates. Some people are much more productive than others and with the best will in the world, not always available, they get tired of putting in more than an equal share and getting out an equal one. You don’t get celibate quasi-monastic communities outside religious ones and those are the only examples I’m aware of that perpetuate themselves across generations in a strict communal fashion. Even with multigenerational religious communities they don’t generally share a large portion of property communally. The Hutterites, Amish and similar groups function as communities with strong norms, a great deal of community self help and group decision making but most property is held at the household level. And they generally fission somewhere between 50 and 100 families when coordination problems and group communication gets unwieldy. If the commune does ninetieth percentile well they’ll keep drama and internal feuding to a minimum, with no one “stealing” anyone else’s spouse and it’ll eventually turn into a co-op with most people holding a lot of individual property.
- mercutio2 8y ago
  The most long-term successful secular income-sharing communities have been the ones that: A) Chose to be large. Small groups can have a harder time weathering a single bad experience, and have trouble maintaining social dynamism for varied age cohorts B) Had strong enough systems to exclude free loaders. Everyone’s approach to this differs, but it’s a pre-condition to giving everyone a sense of common ownership and avoiding resentment C) Found a meaningful business into which new members could be trained relatively easily and that people don’t hate. Programming is unfortunately not a skill that’s easy to teach to sizable fractions of people joining communes, and lots of the people who are attracted to communes want to spend less time on a computer, not more

brusch64 8y ago

I am sorry if this is not really the point of your post, but I am reminded of watching the movie "Meine keine Familie". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2917962/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2917962/ As mich as i know there is no English version but it is a movie about someone growing up in a commune in Austria in the 70ies. It is a very interesting and sad movie. The "founding father" of this commune spent time in prison because of child molestation and harassment. His mother still thought that he "had a good childhood and time" in the commune without knowing his father. As much as I know from the movie he wasn't molested - but he experienced growing up there as a very strict and unfree experience (I am not sure if this is totally correct, but my memories are shady, I've watched it many years ago)

jnmandal 8y ago

I've thought about something similar. I think a 3-4 person consultancy could actually be run well as a co-op. It's not ideal though. It would be better to have some sort of agricultural tangible export from the community I think.

ada1981 8y ago

I’m working on a similar project. We acquired our first land in Panama (http://Majagual.org http://Majagual.org) We also are planning an alt-school system in which instead of going to college, you and 100 other students boot up a cooperative eco-village that you own outright. You’ve got food, shelter and community handled with no loans and then you can focus on other projects, research, etc. Imagine running this coop with automation and robotics. You could free up more time while increasing the lifestyle of the members. And of course, I already co-own a $50MM cooperative grocery store with about 16,000 others in NYC (FoodCoop.com)

CPLX 8y ago
> you and 100 other students boot up a coooerstive eco-village that you own outright Are you able to convey this idea in English? It sounds interesting.
oh_sigh 8y ago
What exactly is the point of that island? It looks like you can't actually develop on it, and it is so small that it is basically a day trip at best.
- ada1981 8y ago
  It’s about 100 acres in total and quite well suited for development actually. Solid basalt rock along with jungle lowlands and plenty of sand. Right now we have a small group of Founding Family and we are hosting small gatherings (Max 150 people).
mtbomb 8y ago
It seems like an island in the tropics would be a poor choice for something like this. Mosquitos and difficult access to mainland services?
- ada1981 8y ago
  We haven’t had a huge issues with mosquitos. While Panama City is about 50km away, we are just 5km from Chiman which is a fishing village with a police station, medical outpost, church, food, etc. There is also a road being put in between Chiman and the Pan American Highway which will allow for one to drive down and then take a 10min boat ride. Right now the aesthetic is very much a burning man camp, with people bringing in what is needed and leaving no trace - however we will begin to create some light shared infrastructure. We also have a small shared ownership stake in a tiny home in Kalu Yala which is an eco village on the mainland. Come visit sometime! PS, we don’t plan to export food, our primary export will be culture and transformation — meaning we have companies and individuals who come for coaching / leadership training / etc and for the festival.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

AngrySkillzz 8y ago

Twin Oaks already does this - they grow most of their own food, have a few external businesses, and I'm pretty sure a few of their members have external jobs (at least one of which is a programmer, if I remember). They practice "income sharing," so all money goes into a common pool and is spent on the needs of the community.

socialist_coder 8y ago
I read their articles on income sharing, but it doesn't mention if the income sharing is truly 100% communist, or if there is some kind of specific $ amount you need to contribute, and then everything on top of that is yours (or you could choose to work less hours). Do you know any specifics?
- mercutio2 8y ago
  Income sharing is 100% for income from labor at Twin Oaks. Passive income is a grey area, some people lend their assets to the community to avoid earning passive income, but I don't think that's ever been enforced.

netcan 8y ago

If you're serious I suggest you look into the israeli kibbutz movement. It has 100 years experience across 300 communes. Total turnover of all kibbutz businesses is currently about $10bn. A lot of people have had the idea you have, starting a modern commune... a spectrum from Leo Tolstoy to charles manson. Very few were sustainable in the long term, or scalable. The Kibbutz movement was a rare example that was. Most are semi-privatized these days. A handful are still "traditional" (extreme) with no private property and children raised by the community instead of living with their parents.

Reason077 8y ago

I noticed that almost all the photos in the article feature meat or meat production. Seems a little odd to me, but I guess even many hippies are raging carnivores in America. Are vegans welcome at this commune?

vorpalhex 8y ago
It seems like everyone in the community does a lot of manual labor, and it's really hard to get a ton of calories from a vegan diet especially when you need to feed 73 people. Dairy and meat are calorie and nutrient dense. There are some fruits/vegetables/nuts that are as well of course, but it sounds like they mostly sell their nut butters.
- rejoice 8y ago
  They eat a lot of nut butter. The best nut butter is when they switch production from almond butter to cashew butter, there's like 50lbs of nut butter that comes out that is (::gasp!::) mixed in unknown amounts, so it can't be sold with accurate packaging. Hot tip, almond/cashew butter is amazingly delicious regardless of what proportions you mix it in.
mercutio2 8y ago
There were tons of happy vegans at East Wind last time I was there. For common meals, East Wind wasn’t quite as on top of the wide variety of dietary preferences people express as Twin Oaks was last time I checked, but vegans are most definitely welcome.
wes-k 8y ago
Someday we’ll have our own tech forward vegan commune! This is a big dream of mine!!

mercutio2 8y ago

If you are in North America, you should try getting in touch with the Federation of Egalitarian Communities [0]. It’s a very tight-knit network of exclusively income-sharing, democratic, secular modern communities which includes East Wind (the subject of the article) and Twin Oaks (the earliest FEC community, from which many other communities have sprung). The FEC has frequent meetings, practices labor exchange between their communities, and generally will enthusiastically help you understand historical approaches to income-sharing, and help you build systems and structures of your own. Be aware they will generally recommend that you try living in an existing income-sharing community for a year to get a handle on community dynamics and systems before you go off and found your own new community. New communities have a habit of falling apart because of either poor systems, or founder-syndrome where the founder wants to be egalitarian, but is so invested in their dream that they alienate their allies by refusing to let go and trust other people. Also, people who want to join income-sharing communities tend to range from very- to extremely-anti-authoritarian. This can be hard for founders, who are trying to get stuff done and think they can keep doing things they way they did when they got started. So founding is hard, you really need good systems, good co-founding community members, and the ability to detach and trust-but-verify the energetic but unproven new members that will inevitably make or break your community. [0] http://thefec.org http://thefec.org

komali2 8y ago
Doctorow tackled this in "Walkaway," a novel that takes the commune concept all the way to the end - what if the only form of community organization on the planet was the commune? They often used Wikis and other distributed messaging platforms to trade tips. It was really fascinating to read.
boonewheeler 8y ago
Do you live in an FEC community?
- mercutio2 8y ago
  I haven't for over a decade. I love the FEC communities, though! If my wife was up for it, I'd happily move back. One of the challenges of commune life is certainly the size of the dating pool.

TaylorAlexander 8y ago

I’m all for this and am actively working towards it! I’m a robotics engineer and I want to live in a partially automated commune with some like minded people. I think there are real mental, economic, and ecological benefits to living this way. See my three essay series on the subject: http://tlalexander.com/wealth/ http://tlalexander.com/wealth/ http://tlalexander.com/machine/ http://tlalexander.com/machine/ http://tlalexander.com/corporation/ http://tlalexander.com/corporation/ See also the philosophy of Communalism: http://www.communalismpamphlet.net/ http://www.communalismpamphlet.net/ There are many other people interested in this. One enthusiastic online community I’ve found is this one: https://tkcooptech.tumblr.com/ https://tkcooptech.tumblr.com/ They have a discord I can invite you to if you email me (see profile). Finally see my discussion site on building automated societies at http://reboot.love http://reboot.love I believe the reboot concepts (more developed in my head than in my writing) can extend to whole cities and beyond. I think smaller communes could popularize the ideas and free up some people to be more politically active. The small communes would be a vanguard but the goal is to reach everyone, not just rich techies who want to unplug.

jtbayly 8y ago

Sounds a bit like a traditional family. One man making a fair bit of money. One woman handling domestic work, including producing some food and buying the rest. When you have kids they help as they get older. All the money is pooled. Eventually the man retires.

dv_dt 8y ago

I've come across some tech organizations that facilitate this kind of collective. I don't know how effective it is, but there do seem to be many at least small collectives signed into it. https://opencollective.com/ https://opencollective.com/

paxus 8y ago

This idea has been out there for a while. A small number of highly paid tech people providing the financial backbone of a larger community. And in a way, Dancing Rabbit started this way. But for as good an idea as it sounds, it turns out quite difficult to pull off. Even if the tech folks are living in the community it basically does not work for a small number of people to be disproportionately carrying the financial burden of the collective.

socialist_coder 8y ago
What problems do they run into to make it not work? If the tech people are married to non-tech people, would that change the equation?