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Twin Oaks an Egalitarian Community (stfr) - YouTube
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there is money
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it's okay Naruto
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Tokyo is real at Twin Oaks were in a
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gala Tyrion community we have no leader
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everyone has equal access to
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decision-making power also it means that
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we have equal access to our resources I
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mean if you've been here 40 years or
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you've been here four months it doesn't
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matter we all have equal ownership of
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the land of the buildings of the
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vehicles and that's part of our Galit
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arianism every member has their own
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bedroom and we share kitchens and living
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rooms and bathrooms and for a hundred
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people we have seven houses it's a lot
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less use of resources because instead of
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you know in a typical North American
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household that you would have 80 houses
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maybe for a hundred people if that means
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80 you know stoves 80 fridges 80 washing
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machines 80 kitchens that you have to
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heat when you really individuals don't
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need a kitchen all the time they don't
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need a laundry room all the time because
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of the way we share things were able to
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live a lot more lightly a lot more
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ecologically sustainably and also we
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grow a lot of our own food we grow about
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75% of our own food and part of why
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we're able to do that is because there's
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so many of us some people can work in
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the garden while other people are doing
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other jobs we don't all have to be
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working in our own garden to produce all
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of our own food again it's a huge
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benefit to deciding to collectivise your
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resources have control over your own
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resources decide how you want to do
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and do it all very locally really it's
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this lesson we all learned in
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kindergarten is sharing it's such a
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basic life principles and at Twin Oaks
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we've taken it farther than most people
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take it
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hey yeah hey so it's just sort of free
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bike programmer take one if you need it
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up the hill or down the hill and I'm the
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manager I moved here and that was what I
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knew how to do and then they said oh we
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need a bike mechanic I was an employee
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at a company I felt like I was working
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into a vacuum rather than working for
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something you know I was working for a
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paycheck but I'm too tired to enjoy the
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paycheck really everybody was unhappy
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you know or everybody hated the boss and
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it's just kind of like why are we
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against each other or why are we sort of
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working so hard for these things that
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are about image or status like social
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status or you know so I decided to pack
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up my skills and whatever I got you know
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new and bring it all here and go
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something that feels more fair equitable
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or worthwhile and it feels good to do
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work to work hard and work hard for
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myself you know rather than trying to
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work for other people
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like it accompany as an employee but you
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work for the old community yeah right
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but it's also my community so I like
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that you know I respect that people I
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work with and feel respected by them for
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me that's very appealing I feel very
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drawn into a group this has that energy
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of yeah here we are building our lives
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together and that's what we're doing
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together and because we are the ones who
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are doing it we can do it in a way
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that's enjoyable for us we can work at
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jobs that we like to work at we can work
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at a pace that's comfortable for us and
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everyone's able to bring the skills that
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they're good at that they're interested
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in so some people you know are really
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interested in building and repairing our
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building somebody else comes in is
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interested in solar electricity so all
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of a sudden we turn some more of our
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energy needs into solar energy provided
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rather than on the grid and again all
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these people bringing their particular
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gifts and their particular skills and
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talents means that the group as a whole
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is stronger is more vibrant
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we're an income sharing community every
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member works 42 hours a week some of
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that is in our domestic areas like
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gardening or kitchen work or childcare
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all that kind of work and some of that
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42 hours is in our income areas making
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tofu and making hammocks that earns
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money for the community and then
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together all the money that we earn we
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distribute equally according to as we
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have need for it some money for health
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care some money for foods that we can't
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grow ourselves whatever we need money
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for together we decide how to spend it
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well we have two major income areas and
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that is heme --ax any tendon tears are
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part of Hemmings and the other major
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income area is tofu production we have a
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lot of different income areas one of the
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things that we do that's big is our
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seeds business which is growing very
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fast because it's the kind of work that
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most people here want to do a lot of
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people don't want to work in a tofu
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Factory it's a political thing as well
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as a lifestyle thing for us dough
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Monsanto but 42 hours a week is enough
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it's a lot but um you know we get labor
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credit for a lot of things that most
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people in the mainstream world don't get
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labor credit for like you know painting
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your house fixing the gutters on the
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roof cooking dinner doing dishes you
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know all these things we get labor
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credit for so really it's probably the
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same as working 25 or 30 hours a week so
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we do find ourselves with a little bit
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more leisure time than the average
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person
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okay so every member has the opportunity
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every week to write down what they what
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work areas they want to work in so this
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is a labor sheet so I guess my question
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for you is what are you okay doing a
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garden shift you said you you were
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interested in working in the tofu Hut is
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that true Oh
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we have this incredibly complex but
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elegant labor system it's taken us 45
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years to develop it and by now we've
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worked out all the bugs and what's nice
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about this system is people only have to
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do the jobs that they want to do here
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but on the other hand is it's very
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organized because all the little empty
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spaces get filled in with somebody's
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name doing that job so it's just this
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sort of very flexible yet structured
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system
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we're the masters of our own schedule
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you know as a member here you basically
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don't have to do anything except dishes
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once a week so people generally are
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happy because they're doing what they
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want to be doing
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there is much more fish-like problem
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with money is that it interrupts and can
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contort social environmental values so
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the credit system that they use is
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actually a more advanced and better
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system than a monetary system is just
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based on labor hours with each kind of
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hour that you do whether it's gardening
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whether it's looking after children
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whatever kind of skill it involves it's
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all equal to one hour then money really
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becomes redundant people in this
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community decide themselves what is
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productive work so they have a lot
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greater chance of direct democracy in
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that sense
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we're a self-organized group we make
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decisions together and how that works is
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each work area here has a manager and
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the manager does make some decisions for
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their work area we don't want a hundred
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people that have to decide every little
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thing and then for decisions that the
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whole community is involved in we have a
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group of people called the planners and
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they gather information they hold
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meetings they write papers people can
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give their input to them they don't
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decide for the community rather they
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gather the information of what the
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community wants and make the decision
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based on that
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I've always wanted to live
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we don't really own anything but you own
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everything you have to work your quota
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and these are the job keeping there's a
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lot of things you can do then you can
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have various daring amounts of
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responsibility with them - I'm not the
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cheese manager i mr. cheese worker okay
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good enough
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if we are a community of 20 people it
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probably wouldn't make any sense at all
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to make all our own cheese but when you
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get to a certain size and you have a
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certain you know larger amount of money
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a larger amount of labour it's easier
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you can invest in more industrial
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equipment to do the things you want to
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do not just not just the milk machines
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but the dishwasher the tofu so that
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you're not spending all this time doing
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tasks there are some people who want
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everything to be handmade and that comes
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from a sort of fear where the world is
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how everything gets industrialized and
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how the how the workers become slaves to
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the machines but in our system we're not
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trying to squeeze labour out of each
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other
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we're not trying to enslave each other
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we're trying to work together and the
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machines that we invest in
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yeah they work for us
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yes here we go you guys were scheduled
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to do dinner help
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as a way in which forces very rich for
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example we have this pond with a
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wood-burning sauna right beside it and
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we have these wonderful sauna evenings
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and I have access a woodshop and I can
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build whatever I want with an unlimited
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supply of oak wood which there's no way
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I'd have that up there I give yoga
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classes other people can take my yoga
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classes for free you know it's just part
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of living here so we have this quality
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of life were able to offer different
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experiences and benefits to people that
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you just can't do on an individual basis
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if you look at the income we make
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collectively and individually
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it's nothing close to what a
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middle-class typical person makes and
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the reason we're able to live this
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lifestyle you know basically on
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middle-class lifestyle very comfortable
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using a lot less money is again because
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of this radical sharing that we do so
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that frees up a lot more energy to
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provide other kinds of quality of life
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services and experiences for each other
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you are
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Oh
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kind of challenging with activist work
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here at widows I mean there's so much
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that's just lifestyle activism just by
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living here there's things that we're
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doing that creates change just by how
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we're choosing to live our life but that
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doesn't mean that there isn't still work
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to be done out there so it's a delicate
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balancing act and definitely do movement
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support as well do that count on your
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labor credit I guess I do get labor
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credit for organizing politically and
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for going to rally isn't going to flash
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yeah I like to think we're making the
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revolution and we're providing an
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alternative for you know once all those
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old structures have hopefully drop away
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people are going to be looking around in
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a North American context I like to think
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that we are bringing in an alternative
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that people can look to you know maybe
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move to or use as an example for
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inspiration to create their own
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alternatives and one thing that we say
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is is that people don't necessarily need
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to live communally but what they would
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need to do is to take the essence of the
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structure of this community and even if
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people are living in household or
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individually by themselves be involved
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in community decision-making for their
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local area and how they try and sustain
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themselves the kinds of things that
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people can do is to try and work part
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time as much as possible in other words
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only work for money as much as you need
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to and try and extend the kinds of
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organizations and the ways that you work
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and leave so that they're involving
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non-monetary
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relationships as much as possible so
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there's all kinds of ways that people
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can come for three weeks or three years
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live here learn something take it away
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and apply it to the wider world and
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that's definitely an important part of
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what we want to offer
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hello love you community
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that'd be a bell very same
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let me explain the surface
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