Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: House Pricing in House Selection Process

[Pablo Halpern (phalpern]

> From: Hune  Margulies <hm64 [at] columbia.edu>
> 
> Historically, equality of means (that is, income, and the ability to 
> spend it) as been a main stay of communitarian oriented thinking. 
> Admitedly, cohousing is not a socialist enterprise, however, in my 
> personal view, and to the extent that the experience of, say, the 
> Kibbutz, is relevant to this case, once disparities in socio-economic 
> status appear, the fabric of the community weakens significantly.

This flies in the face of many communittee's desire for diversity (both 
economic and otherwise). Diversity does not mean making everybody the same, 
it means tolerating and celebrating the differences between us. In our 
cohousing community, we have a certain amount of economic diversity, some 
by choice (e.g., people who *could* make more money, but choose to put 
their energies into things other than work), some by accident (e.g. people 
who make two incomes because they didn't have children as soon as they had 
hoped), and some because of social realities (e.g. teachers are often 
under-paid).

IMHO, to ask a more afluent member of the community to give up a larger or 
fancier house to give the illusion that we are all the same is 
counter-productive to building tolerance. If I were asked to live in a 
smaller house than I wanted and could afford, I would probably become 
resentful of the poorer members and may seek to build a community entirely 
made up of afluent people. Most of the people I know in cohousing want more 
independence than an income-sharing commune provides.

[Repeating]
> Kibbutz, is relevant to this case, once disparities in socio-economic 
> status appear, the fabric of the community weakens significantly.

One thing that comes up over and over is that diversity is hard. Tolerance 
means being tolerant of things you don't want to tolerate. One difference 
between our situation and the Kibbutz is that the disparities in 
socio-economic status do not "appear" but are present and acknowledged from 
the begining. I hope this will make us better able to handle these 
disparities.

- Pablo

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Pablo Halpern              (508) 435-5274         phalpern [at] world.std.com

New View Neighborhood Development, Acton, MA
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