Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Should individual "sponsorship" be allowed of community property?

[Joe Nolan (jnolan]

Elizabeth Stevenson wrote:

> I'm sorry, but I still don't see how allowing people to contribute what they
> want to specific projects is fair. Those with more money have more say.
> Period. Doesn't this bother anyone else?
I'm just putting out what seems to work well for us (a system that has 
evolved over 7 years) - YMMV.

If someone kicks in an extra $40 because they really want those cherry 
trees, then I personally don't experience that as unfair. For me it's a 
wonderful example of a "gift economy". If they were doing something 
objectionable with the money, the proposal would have been rejected. I 
guess it comes down to how you see your neighbors - loving benefactors 
or self-serving capitalists.

> Why is this necessary? If your process is working, the community should be
> getting things paid for that need paying for,
I don't know if it's necessary, but we have found it desirable and 
efficient. Part of the issue, I think, is that the system saves us from 
having many hours of discussion trying to prioritize relatively trivial 
projects - everyone allocating their portion in parallel makes for a 
very speedy process. You could use the same system & get this benefit, 
but disallow the extra contributions if you wanted.

(If you really want an egalitarian community, you need to equalize 
incomes, not just spending, yes?)



_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe  and other info:
http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L