With a growing number of political candidates advocating government-mandated socialist policies, I’ve got a question: Why not try voluntary socialism instead?
After all, capitalism is fundamentally a system of private ownership and voluntary exchange. It even allows people to voluntarily organize their lives around socialist principles. Leave government out of it!
That’s exactly what the folks at Twin Oaks Community in rural Virginia have been doing since 1967.
Approximately 100 residents share income, housing, food, healthcare, and other living expenses. Members contribute 38.5 hours of labor weekly, working in community businesses, maintaining property, preparing meals, or performing other tasks.
Rather than receiving traditional salaries, members get their basic needs covered and a personal spending allowance of roughly $100 monthly.
The standard of living is said to be comfortable, but hardly luxurious. Residents have private bedrooms but share bathrooms, kitchens, vehicles, and other resources. There are few opportunities to accumulate personal wealth and I don’t see any sports cars or clubhouses on their 500 acres.
Although Twin Oaks describes itself as economically self-supporting, they apparently aren’t very economically productive. As a result, they note that their income-sharing arrangement means individual members often qualify for state-subsidized healthcare.
(I guess that should raise an interesting question about how financially independent the experiment really is, but they don’t seem to dwell on that, so I won’t either).
So why haven’t thousands of similar communities sprung up across America?
Perhaps because communal living seems to become increasingly difficult as groups grow. There’s the problem of free riders, disagreements over resource allocation, and the challenge of rewarding people with different skills and productivity levels.
In addition, there’s also the obvious reality that most Americans prefer controlling their own life decisions, money, property, and financial futures. I certainly do!
Supporting an aging population adds another financial challenge. Retirement at Twin Oaks is gradual. Beginning at age 50, members receive credits that progressively reduce their required weekly labor by 1 hour per year. I guess that means you are stuck working, to some degree, until you are 88.5 years old. Fun!
Still, I think we should encourage voluntary Socialism as much as we can.
If hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people want to pool their paychecks, share their possessions, and pursue economic equality, more power to them! Capitalism is the one system that provides the freedom for people to practice it alongside countless other economic arrangements.
After all, mandating that others join your Socialist dream through government force is the opposite of the tolerant & inclusive community they advocate.
Will you help me in encouraging your Socialist-leaning friends & family to voluntarily practice Collectivism on their own?
Twin Oaks proves that it is a voluntary choice!
Image: ChatGPT
It would be great if Socialism became voluntary, and of course I would not participate. But …..
An interesting read that explains the current Socialist undercurrents happening in the US, is Peter Schweizer’s “Invisible Coup”. Much of the current illegal migration into the US was the result of Fidel Castro on his 90th birthday holding the Sao Pao Forum to get countries south of our border to weaponize mass immigration against the US. They see us as wealthy, and want to take their share of our wealth. Ironically, many better off leftists are encouraging this immigration. They will be disappointed to learn that you don’t have to be billionaire or rich person to have enough wealthy to be targeted from these invaders.
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Thatcher in 1976 said “Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.”
That has not changed.
I took a number of alternative economic theory courses in college, remember college is a place to learn how to think. One course was Humanistic Economics taught by Marc Lutz, brother of the known auto industry executive Bob. I really liked Lutz as he was open to all economic systems. He focused on a Basque cooperative Mondragon. This is still a major organization of many coops in a conglomerate in Northwest Spain. Rather than pure socialism, the coops provide an ownership stake for employees/shareholders.
Socialist organizations are like grantors to universities and non-profits. Donors like to build something and put their name on it, but few want to fund a maintenance program. Build something grandiose but allow it to deteriorate over time, then complain that funding for new infrastructure is needed. Socialist organizations like to be kind and help out today without regard to tomorrow.
Coops or publicly traded organizations which provide stock to all employees so all have a stake in ownership and success do well. As an example, how many SpaceX paper millionaires have left the organization? Very few, they have ownership but love what they do.
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