Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Work or Pay Systems

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Jul 27, 2008, at 6:01 PM, David Mandel wrote:

>    In my view, it becomes particularly insidious when the discussion  
> leads to a policy of "work or pay" as an individual "choice," as if  
> everyone truly has the same degree of choice. The result in an  
> economically diverse community can easily devolve into a microcosmic  
> class divide. Those who can easily pay a bit more instead of  
> contributing fully to community work, freely deciding that other  
> parts of their lives are just more important; vs. others who simply  
> don't have the cash and therefore must devote more hours to  
> community work. Talk about a formula for breeding resentment -- try  
> overlaying this on that which may already occur with differential  
> work involvement among economic equals.

This has often been raised as a concern, usually as a justification  
for not allowing people to pay at all. Everyone works. I think we need  
some actual data  on whether allowing people to pay instead of work  
actually does produce a class divide. In my community there is  no  
indication that it does. Of course, deciding this means making  
subjective decisions in assigning people a "class."

'Ability to pay' is also very subjective. Many members of my community  
have opted out of well-paying and time-consuming jobs in order to do  
the work they love and to have more time for it. Are they of a lower  
socio-economic class because of this? Higher?

However you define "class" and "hours of community work," this  
argument about breeding resentment and class division, as far as  
anyone has demonstrated in relation to cohousing, seems to be based on  
supposition and ideology, not fact.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org