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 ...
That was an informative link. More amusing than a kennedy at rehab.
It's a kibbutz.
"Meager incomes aside, where's the remaining $0.77M/year going?"
Mortgage payments on the land?
I'm too lazy to read their website, but here's a link to it courtesy of Post 13.
Note that they don't pay a living wage.
Shoot, they don't even pay minimum wage.
500 acres? Dayem, they should take up farming. grow something other than beans.
Or build a golf course :)
These people have been living in a state of suspended adolescence for over 40 years; sweat is their second skin.
"I hoped we would be financially secure by now," says founder Kat Kinkade, 75. "We're not."
"You don't get more money or a bigger room being a manager, just more of a headache,"
"Pier 1 was a boon to the community," says Kathryn, a 29-year-old manager in the hammock business. "For a lot of us, losing them was also kind of exciting - no more working for a multinational."
"By selling hammocks to consumers via direct mail and eBay. "We'll get a lot more money per item for less work," he predicts hopefully.
And the tofu hut is a literal sweatshop: hot, damp, and factory-like. The tofu managers have had a hard time persuading residents to pick up the extra shifts that are needed to expand production.
I don't even know where to begin. I'm actually speechless.
Not to mention utilities, health care, gas, packaging materials for the hammocks and tofu, raw materials, shipping expenses, food, and who knows what else.
Love your tagline!
I wonder how many members depart the commune with a deeper unexpected understanding of capitalism than when they arrived:)
Incidentally, they have a web storefront - http://www.twinoakstore.com
Very Funny read, But the picture #53 Looks like witches of eastwick.
LOL thanks for the ping.
[Mrs T]
What a hustle. Some day the property will be sold. Who has title?
There is a creeping moral relativism in affirming them for practicing a Christian lifestyle without acknowledging the Christ. The reforms Jesus brought to the world were real and historic facts that separated people from enslavement to patriarchal Greco-Roman social codes. But He did it to separate His people from unbelievers, not so that people could dabble in shamanism, druidism, feminism and other empty rituals, but so that members of a community could support each other and instruct their children in His teachings, which He came here to offer us as the way to salvation.
LOL!! You nailed it!
Couldn't help but notice this little gem buried in their FAQs:
"Because of our income-sharing, our members often qualify for state-subsidized health care at medical facilities in the area."
In other words, they use their low income to get welfare health benefits from the taxpayers. They do not mention the food stamps and free abortions and condoms -- but it goes without saying they are probably not so high-minded as to turn down these freebies, either.
It being a free country with free speech and opinion, let us choose to point and laugh freely.
Now we know where Code Pink is getting their "extras."
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