Re: more perspective on rules and regs | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Hans G. Ehrbar (ehrbar![]() |
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Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:07:01 -0700 (PDT) |
Thank you for forwarding the New York Times article reference. I live at Wasatch Commons in Salt Lake City. In our community we tend to think that one cannot force people to be good community members, this must and will come voluntarily. Of course, if we don't enforce rules, this makes it possible for parasites to encroach, as the New York Times article says. What can we do about this? I teach Marxism at the University of Utah, and from my perspective, we should resist the temptation to fall back onto a more rule-oriented regimen. Reasons: (1) It is not possible to design rules which, if followed, turn you into a good community member. (2) As long as capitalism is rampant, self-serving parasitic behavior is encouraged and even necessary. People who are socialized this way are not necessarily bad. (3) Our economic system is such that most people get robbed, oppressed and exploited 8 hours a day on their jobs, and they don't seem to mind. But if they perceive their neighbor to act a little selfish, they are all up in arms about it, although the damage to them is usually not very great. The greatest damage is that it discourages us, but we do have that under control. We can just laugh it off and not be discouraged. If we can survive capitalism, we can certainly survive cohousing. (4) Participation in the community is fun and very fulfilling. People who don't receive the benefits of this will probably move out again. Hans. -- Hans G. Ehrbar http://www.econ.utah.edu/~ehrbar ehrbar [at] economics.utah.edu
- Re: Re: more perspective on rules and regs, (continued)
- Re: Re: more perspective on rules and regs Liz, April 18 2006
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Re: more perspective on rules and regs Tom Hammer, April 18 2006
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Re: Re: more perspective on rules and regs Sharon Villines, April 19 2006
- Re: Re: more perspective on construction phase versus live in phase Bonnie Fergusson, April 19 2006
- Re: more perspective on rules and regs Hans G. Ehrbar, April 19 2006
- Re: Re: more perspective on rules and regs Sharon Villines, April 20 2006
- Re: Re: more perspective on rules and regs ken, April 21 2006
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Re: Re: more perspective on rules and regs Sharon Villines, April 19 2006
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RE: Re: more perspective on rules and regs Alexander Robin A, April 21 2006
- Re: Re: more perspective on rules and regs Liz, April 22 2006
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