Cohousing-L Mailing List: Work vs Pay

[Sharon Villines (sharonvillines]

on 8/2/00 3:45 AM, David Mandel at dlmandel [at] rcip.com wrote:

> we don't like setting up a situation in which
> the "choice" between working more and paying more is a real choice for
> those who can afford to pay more but not for those who can't. We didn't
> want to encourage creation of a two-tier society where some pay more to
> have others work more. Ours is a particularly mixed-income community,
> but I think the principle applies generally.

This is the situation most groups want to avoid, but it raises the issue of
why some have more money than others. At various junctures in my life, I
have chosen not to have more money. I've chosen not to be a university
administrator which would have doubled my salary and my pension benefits. I
have chosen to stay in the university environment where I had more time to
write, rather than move to the business or non-profit sector where I would
have earned more money but had much longer "in the office" hours.

I haven't worked fewer hours but I chose to spend them doing activities that
did not produce "monetary rewards." As a result, I have flexible time to
contribute to a community. I don't want to work more than others but I can
work during traditional working hours and share a car that I use during the
week and someone else uses on weekends. I can drop what I am doing to tend
to an emergency without worrying about getting up at dawn to get to work or
leaving an important meeting.

Some people choose to have a very taxing job that pays well (people do chose
to be floor traders, one of the most stressful jobs I know). Does this mean
that they cannot live in a community because they have more money than time?
Aren't these the people who need a community to come home to and who have
little time to create one that depends on time contributions?

The real issue may be one of fears of social class distinctions rather than
money vs work. "People who work are by definition of a lower social class."
Or attitude. "I pay more, you do the menial work, I am more important."

I've seen many situations where people who would gladly have contributed
more money were prevented from doing so by fears that were unjustified in
the specific situations. People with money, hard earned dollars, are made to
feel helpless because they don't have another muscle or another hour to put
behind another task.

Identifying the concern correctly might lead to a more satisfactory
solution.

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