Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: common house duties

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

Scott Crowley  whose email address today is :) scowley [at] library.utah.edu
is the author of the message below but due to a problem it was posted
by the Fred the list manager: owner-cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

    One of the most intriguing aspects of cohousing for me is the 
Sharing part.  Can it be done amongst the Americans ?

On the one hand we have...Wage Slaves.
On the other we have...Busy, Important people who like to a) Work 
(for themselves), or b) Play.  In order to do either, someone else 
must do the c) "shit work".

While I believe that we are trying to put people into an environment 
which rewards the Best in people instead of the worst, I am 
curious about your experience with the bottom line.  For those 
communities which are _older_, and hopefully in a post-capitalistic 
transitional phase, what has your experience been ? I know Twin Oaks 
had to invent a work credit system to keep people from abusing each 
other.  How long did it take you to get the Busy, Important people to 
help, and the worker bees to allow them to ? What were the 
volunteer/coercion requirements ?  How did the dialogue go ?