A lot of the things we do on a daily or weekly basis have ways of doing them that can either be private or communal, some of these which we do not think to consider as having that characteristic.

For example, bathing in the Roman Empire used to be communal, but then Rome fell and citizens in the splinter countries began taking baths privately.

Receiving mail is another example. There are countries which don’t have mailboxes and everyone gets their mail at the post office in the PO boxes. It was the United States which pioneered the idea of the modern mail system, which is why we associate it as a private act.

There are activities as well which don’t have any history as jumping between one or the other that might benefit from it, for example I think towns might benefit if internet was free and freely accessible but only at the local library.

What’s a non-communal aspect of life you think should be communal?

  • @[email protected]
    32•1 month ago

    Verified: group cooking is the way.

    I have friends and family who live in a cohousing building. About 50 people in 30 units. Each apartment is complete but the kitchens are slightly smaller than typical.

    Cohousing is mutual ownership of the building. About 20% of the building is common areas, like widened hallways with couches and bookshelves, or a games nook, music room, workshop, laundry, etc. It’s basically a tall village, and they are like roommates with privacy.

    The giant kitchen and dining room is used six nights a week. One person is chef with a small crew, and dinner is for around 30 people. It costs $5 CDN per meal, though if you raid the leftovers later it’s pay what you want, usually $2. The cooking volunteer roster is optional and organized by a Slack channel. Food is usually awesome and everyone wins.

    If you want you hardly ever have to cook dinner for yourself.

          • @[email protected]
            3•1 month ago

            Other savings built into collective infrastructure:

            • super cheap fast internet. They pay about $5/ month and when I am visiting I get 1ms ping to speedtest servers, amazing.
            • tools, the workshop is set up for tool sharing as well
            • laundry room, no coins
            • car sharing is easy
            • bulk buying groups naturally form
            • event facilities, guest rooms just need booking (big deal in Vancouver eh)
            • profit control: fewer middlemen to feed for maintenance and management
            • dozens of tiny efficiencies that add up
            • village settings are naturally designed for mutual aid, good cohousing is a microvillage
          • @[email protected]
            2•1 month ago

            You are familiar with the concept of #cohousing, right? I don’t think anyone is renting there, all owners. Land values have been fucked in Vancouver since capitalism arrived, and in fact when the group bought the three house lots they needed, they had to deal with one of them being shadow-flipped during the purchase.

            Still, pooling resources did make it very possible for the group. The hard-to-swallow expensive part was actually building to passivhaus standards and dealing with bureaucracy, if I understand correctly.

              • @[email protected]
                1•1 month ago

                Yes and it would have been funny if any rent was involved.

                Edit, oh wait you mean they are SAving 5k a month, whoosh missed that

                • SatansMaggotyCumFart
                  2•1 month ago

                  I like to light-heartedly make fun about life’s absurdities but I see that’s completely lost here.

                  Have a nice day.

    • @[email protected]
      5•1 month ago

      I am from India and currently work in IT. Due to a lot of reasons I did not pursue cooking but my main motivation to pursue cooking was this aspect, and if you are interested check out community kitchens in India (Mega Kitchens docu series is a good place to start)