Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Truly Capitalist Things

[Joel Rothschild (joel]

Questions about "ownership" /vs/. "sharing" loom so large at this 
moment. The younger generations (mine and younger) are increasingly 
willing to rent resources rather than own them. This reduces waste, but 
also raises the specter of very powerful, rich landlords. (ZipCar, 
AirBnb, and Uber rent out goods and services for profit, and they are 
growing fat, bringing the potential for corporate abuses like we've 
already seen from Uber.) It also raises the question, how will we build 
wealth?

Meanwhile, older generations are burdened with too much ownership. In 
retirement, big houses get hard to maintain, car-dependency gets 
isolating (sometimes dangerous), and I read recently that for the 
boomers ownership has come with so much financing, average net worth 
isn't enough to buy even a modest house. I'm worried for my parents.

Cohousing inspires me because it's so much about balance and the 
sensible middle path. We need to find middle paths between extreme 
rentership and extreme ownership. The first step may be to stop thinking 
of renting and owning as irreconcilably opposed to each other. I'd love 
to hear what others think about this.


Joel Rothschild
Ecovillage Developer
Founder, Ecovillagers Cooperative
http://www.ecovillagers.org
+1 202 41 ROOTS (messages)
+1 206 383 7804 (mobile)

On 10/18/2015 06:16 AM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:
> Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2015 14:47:39 -0400
> From: R Philip Dowds<rpdowds [at] comcast.net>
> To: Cohousing-L<cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Truly Capitalist Things
> Message-ID:<A91E7806-9BE9-4C2B-9C81-A401D651831C [at] comcast.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Maybe.  But I am aware of more than a couple cohousing communities that are 
> convinced that tenant-occupied units devalue the property and make mortgages 
> more difficult to secure ? and so, would much prefer a very high rate of owner 
> occupancy.  Meanwhile, at Cornerstone ? a high-density development in a 
> high-density city, well served by transit within a few minutes walk ? I have 
> tried hard to push for various schemes involving community-owned shared cars.  
> The advantages are strong in my mind, but so far, no acceptance of this idea; 
> people remain heavily attached to their ?personal? vehicles, which in turn seem 
> essential to personal freedom and independence.
>
> We?ve still got a lot of work in front of us.  This may in part be due to 
> America as a competitive culture, rather than a collaborative one.
>
> Thanks,
> Philip Dowds
> Cornerstone Village Cohousing
> Cambridge, MA
>
> > >On Oct 17, 2015, at 2:08 PM, William New<wnew [at] stillcreek.net>  wrote:
> > >
> > >And if we move homes/housing out of the_capitalist_  economy and into 
> > the_sharing_  economy, what happens then??
> > >
> > >Ponder the emerging worldview of Millennials who are shunning personal 
> > ownership of houses and cars, embracing social sharing (e.g. Uber, AirBnB, 
> > cooperative financing), and redefining alternative models of career and education 
> > (to obviate indebtedness) ? ?co-housing? (largely a product of the Boomer culture 
> > as we know it) will likely morph to something beyond a ?truly capitalist thing?.