Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Sympathetic lenders

[Greg Hope (g_hope]

With the earnest hope that no one is actually wishing for a crisis of 
hyperinflation to mete out justice to people who have stored the value of their 
labor in dollars, I would like to ask a related question(s) to those who are 
currently working on or have completed cohousing projects.

Were you able to develop a means of incorporating forms of value other than 
monetary that were brought by prospective or current members of your community? 
Put differently, how did your community successfully account for sweat equity? 
Has anyone successfully accounted (and exchanged equity) for future service to 
the community, e.g., the talents of nurses, teachers, builders, as an alternate 
form of value? 

We are currently seeking other potential founders in our area and, as the 
project eventually develops, it's in our hearts to recognize as many forms of 
value as prospective neighbors might bring, if there are reliable ways of doing 
so.

Greg

Brian Bartholomew <bb [at] stat.ufl.edu> wrote: 
> Are you saying that all things we humans value have a monetary
> equivalent or measure?

My understanding of the history of economic study is that the idea
that man makes all decisions in dollar terms was a gross approximation
introduced for a very limited problem space.  It was useful in that
context.  As time went on, it was absurdly misapplied.

None of the economists I read think that "Homo Economous" is an
accurate model of human decisionmaking.  Money can't buy you love.

       Brian
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