Being Earth day, I was pursuing one of my many interests as a huge fan of clean and environmentally friendly technology. I found an article about converting an enclosed trailer to a Solar Power Trailer. I really wish I could afford all of this stuff. Maybe in a few years, the prices will come down enough and I’ll have enough bills paid off to build one of my own.
Just thought I would share it with everyone so if anyone else wants to build one maybe I can help out for the experience.
Wouldn’t it be nice to not pay your electric bill? How about grocery shopping?
Imagine not having to buy electricity, food or any of the bare necessities. You could buy a farm, but that’s pretty expensive. It would take care of food, but how about energy? Maybe you’re not into “roughing it”…
If any of these questions got you thinking… “wow, that would be nice” or “Don’t I wish?” then this post is for you.
I’m looking for people to help build a non-profit cooperative community. Not strictly like the old Hippie Communes or an Amish settlement or anything… well, similar to both in some ways.
What we would do is start off by buying some acreage with a few important features. A running stream of some sort, some cleared land for gardning, and some space for building the “village”
Ideally, the community would have it’s own utility services for water, sewage, electricity and communications. The goal is to have a collective income for everyone. Everyone works either a regular job, or one of the community-owned businesses to earn their keep. There will be a weekly fee that everyone must pay to be part of the community, which covers the costs of operation. Mortgage, taxes, Internet/Telephone uplink, maintenance of the roads and utilities, upkeep of the community businesses, gardens and other necessities. After this is all taken care of, the remainder is divided up evenly to all residents to do with as they wish.
This all a non-profit organization, we could offer things that most businesses offer their employees, benefits such as health insurance, retirement savings, and so on. Ideally, we would also have medical specialists in the community to operate a basic health center.
If it seems like I’m moving from tangent to tangent, it’s because I’m still brainstorming and coming up with things that would help a cooperative community work. The main idea is to combine the buying power of a whole community to increase the standard of living for everyone. The community could have businesses run by residents that are open to the public. The business would be owned by the whole community, and any income from it would go towards the community. Residents could also choose to have outside jobs and contribute back to the community.
Make no mistakes, it won’t be easy. Everyone would have to provide some of the pie. We would need people who are employed by the community to take care of the farm, and utilities even though such things as food, electricity, housing, and such are free to community members.
I’m not sure of all the details, or if anyone else would even be interested, but I know a lot of people who are struggling on their own who would be able to benefit from cooperating together to build a better life for everyone overall.
Things get cheaper when bought in bulk…especially land… For example, it might be pretty expensive for someone making $30,000 a year to buy an acre of land and put a house on it, but with 10 people making that, it wouldn’t be a problem to buy 30 acres of land and put medium-sized dwellings on it. Once the land is purchased, and everyone is paying for it, one could start out living in a meager dwelling (second hand mobile home? campling trailer? etc) and build a larger dewlling little by little without having to worry about coming up with more loans and money right away.
Maybe others have ideas or thoughts on this… chime in please!