Just point and click.
I was hiking this morning with one of my neighbors I met on the main trail in the woods, and we were talking about the communes of our youth-there were several very small ones in this area-and whether the idea “worked” or not.
We agreed that the basic concept-the sharing of defense, pastoral chores, and the food and other goods produced from gardening, hunting and keeping livestock, was sensible. Likewise, members selling or trading items/produce outside the commune-surplus fruit and vegetables, wool, baked goods, herbal concoctions, etc-individually or with others preserved a sense of individual accomplishment, and provided money for goods not produced on-site.
We also agreed that unless each family had and were personally responsible for their own income, spouse/mate, children, pets, personal vehicle(s) land and home, independent of the group, and unless every adult had an equal voice, moral and financial breakdown was bound to result. That is what happens to most communes-when everyone (or one leader) wants to share/divvy up income, land homes, spouses, pets, kids (other than to homeschool). You either end up with sexual/moral corruption, or an eventual mutiny. Some things just don’t need to be shared. In other words, socialism doesn’t even work in communes.
He jokingly said that if 12-24-2012 turns out to be the beginning of the end, maybe we should look at doing a small commune for this neighborhood with the like-thinking individuals-it does make some sense-I’d have to learn to spin wool, I guess...