Posted on 06/09/2006 6:24:55 AM PDT by The Lion Roars
Oaks is experiencing a midlife crisis. The Virginia commune supported its throwback hippie lifestyle for more than 38 years by selling hammocks and tofu. But in 2004, Twin Oaks lost one of its biggest hammock customers, Pier 1 Imports (Research).
Last year revenues slipped to $1.1 million from a 2000 peak of more than $2 million. And expenses such as gas and health care for the commune's aging population are climbing fast. "I hoped we would be financially secure by now," says founder Kat Kinkade, 75. "We're not."
Kinkade and seven other dreamers launched Twin Oaks on 69 acres of rolling Virginia farmland that they bought for $26,500 in 1967. (Today the commune owns 450 acres.) Like many other idealistic, left-leaning young Americans in those days, they hoped to escape the political and social tumult of the 1960s by forming a self-sustaining rural community. Since then hundreds of dropouts, drifters, and seekers have passed through Twin Oaks.
"A lot of people come here searching for something," says Kinkade, who worked as a secretary before she left the outside world behind
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
I meant $1,100,000.00 not $1,000,000.00.
And, that is down from 2 Million.
The Amish have no prblem taking responsibility for themselves...these people obviously do....
lol!
These people are here out of choice, not out of necessity. It's a free country. Let them organize their community however they choose.
Every proletariat needs its dictatorship...
"Makes perfect sense. Socialism is in part predicated on the idea that 'others' cannot manage their lives and affairs as well as the leadership can, and hence the leadership must control, in their wise and benevolent hands, the assets of the group."
Let's be clear here, though. Let's assume that someone wanted to open up a tofu-and-hammocks arrangement under a capitalist model rather than this communist one.
They'd still buy some land, set up a shop, get people to show up and work. The owners are in control either way.
The capitalist model assumes the workers would also like a nice life for themselves and pays them accordingly, and produces a product that can survive competitively. As a result the workers and the owners share and enjoy.
The difference is that in the communist model the owners lie to their work force about who's really in charge, pay them next to nothing, and work them in miserable conditions. Only the owners gain any wealth out of this; the workers get nothing and if they leave, leave with nothing.
Just a case example to keep in mind next time some lib starts playing the class envy card; under the communist model ONLY the already-rich benefit.
$1.1M revenues.
100 residents.
$11,000 revenue per person per year.
$2 stipend per person per day.
Assume: $5/day food, $2/day room per person per day (ballpark estimate minimum derived from my food/housing costs extrapolated to comfy hippie setting).
$3285 income per person per year.
A couple questions:
- At $9/day, they're better off than half the world's population (median income $2/day) ... so what's the problem?
- Meager incomes aside, where's the remaining $0.77M/year going?
Good clarification. BTW I don't begrudge the original founders maintaining control of thier original idea and land purchase. I presume that in the case of this commune this is made clear to prospective members. It is in essence a 'lifestyle themepark' experience the leadership provide to their members.
"I presume that in the case of this commune this is made clear to prospective members."
Oh no ... read their FAQ and such. It's all about the sharing and the caring.
If someone got uppity and actually tracked down the paperwork and asked one of the 7 why they owned everything, first they'd be harangued by the fellow-travellers, then if they persisted the 7 might explain that the big bad outside world required it, then if they still persisted they'd be thrown out.
I don't get it. Kenric/Kenrique is a guy. How could he be the "queen"?
Gimme my TWO DOLLARS!!!
"forming a self-sustaining rural community"
Self sustaining means that you aren't selling things to the outside world.
I HATE HIPPIES.
4 years of college in Boulder will do it to you.
On another note up yours Ward Churchill
Were those hammocks made of hemp?
"The Amish have no prblem taking responsibility for themselves...these people obviously do...."
From what I see they've sustained themselves for 40 years and even expanded their property. Adults work at least 40 hours per week in the commune businesses and as far as I can tell they don't take government welfare. I know their hammocks are a good, solid product. Some of them don't want to work more hours in the tofu place, but from the sound of it, I wouldn't want to, either.
It's not a lifestyle I'd want, but exactly how are they hurting anybody?
Read the whole article, but be forewarned... you will laugh 'til your sides hurt!
"We work for a lifestyle, not a wage," says Thea, 35, a mother with dreadlocks who follows the Twin Oaks custom of not using a last name.
Twin Oaks is a collective: Although volunteer managers are responsible for making the business decisions, all members have a say. Most don't aspire to join the managerial ranks. "You don't get more money or a bigger room being a manager, just more of a headache," says Apple, 32, who joined the commune in 2003 and works in the tofu hut, among other places.
This gal, Apple, sums up the main failure of communism - nobody gets any extra pay or benefits for being a manager, so who wants to work harder for no perks?!
There is so much more in this article that is hilarious. Really. It's worth the read.
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