........achieve these needs for all, with
an approximate "bread labor" requirement of
2 days per week or four
hours per day note
If this goal is not
made abundantly clear up front, (whether it's two people, 200, 2 million or
2 billion), we will always be held captive and made slaves by the greedy,
the excessive, the compulsive or by the hypocritical Puritans and other
delusional religious idealists, perfectionists and guilt ridden purists.
That we make slaves of ourselves by these same inclinations goes without
saying. But at least we should not be in a position to impose our
shortcomings on others.
The aim would be for 2 days
per week; give, or take some amount of hours. Mahatma Gandhi thought
2 hrs a day should be adequate
to take care of "basic" necessities. Others who have thought, or are
thinking in a similar fashion include
Helen and
Scott Nearing,
the
Renaissance Humanist Community,
The Co-Op
Village projects and
The Community Planet
Foundation.
The community would grow
all of our own
organic fruits and
vegetables; raise and prepare
all our own animals, and
animal products, and prepare our food as a community. The other work would be
primarily maintaining structures, facilities and infrastructure. And
occasionally constructing new ones.
Many people who study
this subject (people have been writing about, and
saying this for a long time) say that by living cooperatively, more simply, living
efficiently, and sharing major
resources, this is not
just a possibly attainable goal, it is rather to be the expected result.
Why this goal? So that we will have the
freedom, time, and choices available to us to provide for the rest of
our "earning a living" in ways that are meaningful, enjoyable, and
ecological.
And,
just as importantly,
so that life can be about more than mere consumption
and production i.e. it can also be about activism, networking, continuing
education, scholarship, creativity, research, travel, doing healing work, fasting,
celebration, enjoying one anther, cultivating relationship, and so on.
Remember, the community
would only be providing life's BASIC necessities, such as food, shelter, basic facilities,
utilities
and natural resources. Depending on ones other needs and
desires, and on ones success at meeting them, some additional time will obviously
be required to meet those needs. IE clothes, travel, anything to do with
personal vocation or avocation, dentist needs, and so on.
Also, there would be a small amount
of cash expenses (very small) that would be need to be shared by
all; such as food impractical to grow, tax contribution, and required
resources like building materials, tools, and machinery we could not
provide for ourselves.
It
would be logical to expect some to choose to work together in
individually initiated cooperative businesses, some to work with, or for
one another in private businesses, and others to just work by themselves, in or outside the community.
Note: work exchanges and hiring other community members would be
possible if mutually agreeable, and fair; in other words, the "employee"
would earn at the same rate as the "employer" probably.
Also, some specialization may be called for. If these issues are really
important to you, please call.
And in
other words: Why this goal?
So that life can be about
more than mere consumption and production i.e. it can also be about
activism, networking, continuing education, scholarship, creativity,
research, experimentation, travel, doing healing work, fasting,
celebration, enjoying one anther, enjoying ourselves, cultivating
relationships, and so on.
Also, so that we may the have the freedom, time, and choices
available to us to provide for any further "earning our living" or
producing, providing, and acquiring what we deem desirable or
necessary to our personal happiness...... in ways that are
meaningful, enjoyable, and ecological.
This is the long sought after solution which endeavors to
ensure that everyone's basic need for food and shelter. However these things
cannot just be provided for everyone in some sort
of ideological ideal socialistic society. What is possible, is to
make it easy for everyone to make basic labor contributions in order
to sustain themselves. When done in this way,
it simply will not take much. Mahatma Gandhi thought two hours a day
should be plenty; and this was with the technology of his day. It's hard to say exactly, it
might take a little more or even take less than that.
After the basics are taking care of, people can decide for
themselves how much more they want; or how simply they wish to live
and how much they value their free time.
