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Strike the earth!

Good idea, don't count me in, though.

Meh, I just like to vote. Don't care.

You'll probably have a lot of "Fun*", that's for sure.

GET A JOB, YOU HIPPIES.

[PTTG??]

It's not Rightness, it's Coolness. Which the Antarctic base would have plenty of.

[RedWarrior0]

Let's make a quantum singularity and live there.

[Renault]

I sort of enjoy how this thread has sort of collapsed the past 11 pages, and yet it continues to survive, driven fearlessly on by GlyphGryph and PTTG. Its rather admirable. I don't think its quite right for me, but I'd sort of be curious to see how well this would work for others. Being Bay12ers, it'd probably fail after its 12th year when a members cat would get hit by a car, freak out, start hitting everyone, and by the time police arrived there'd be two blood-covered survivors nonchalantly dragging the dead into little piles.

[qwertyuiopas]

If you want a serious suggestion, try somewhere nearhere. Plenty of farmland and forest, some possibly within walking distance of a computer store. AFAIK, little to no threat of anti-geeks, mobs, or other problems, and plenty of employment opportunities nearby. Decent transportation network, so once you get near the city, you can get almost anywhere in it by foot and bus.

Plus they are paying people who install 'green' power, to encourage it's use, although it irks everyone else who ends up paying more (in taxes? or was it energy bills?)...

Edit:

Ottawa has the highest per capita concentration of engineers, scientists, and residents with PhDs in Canada.[43] It is known as the "most educated city in Canada"[44] with over half the population having graduated from College and/or university.

[Stas]

I personally think that this is a very good idea.
Although the idea of living in a big cement block is not too appealing.
So I found you ( and eventually me ) a nice alternative which will not only be cheap, but will also give the members of the commune some nice building experience.

I present to you, the Hobbit home.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://www.simondale.net/house/

According to them, the house took around 1000 - 1500 hours of work ( for 1 1/2 people that is ) and 3000 £ ( 4700 USD ).
It is not as fast as prefab and other alternatives that were proposed, but it holds a certain charm.
Just imagine a dozen of those little houses, littered across the commune's land, between fields and woods.

Here is another issue, food.

Personnally I do not wish to eat bought eggs, as someone else suggested. It may be cheap, but it lacks a certain je-ne-sais-quoi. It would be far more interesting/rewarding/experience-building to have chickens for the commune to get eggs/meat/feathers(?).
I also like to drink raw eggs and store-eggs are not good for that.
We should also be growing most of the food, it will make us far more self-sufficient and healthy.
Someone stated earlier that one farmer could feed hundreds, well there will be barely half that number so, not only will we feed ourselves healthily, we will also be able to sell surplus.


There is also another issue of mass importance, religion.
Soem of the members may have conflicting religious views, maybe someoen will want a church on the commune's land, maybe certain religious ceremonies that other members will frown down upon.
How would the commune deal with it?

For the pooling of money, let's say one of us is a doctor and gets paid 200k, I doubt he would want to give up 70% of that, considering that other memebers' 70% is far less than the doctor's. Then again that is the point of a commune.  It would also be nice to have a doctor among us, maybe a Chiropractor (or soon to be) <-- hint hint.

Last thing, for the land, we should buy some big, wilderness type land, the cheaper the better. Probably up north, quebec or ontario.

[Vector]

I don't think it's reasonable to expect other folks with special skills to give up more income percentages.  The fact that a doctor would make more does not mean that the doctor would be exempt from common law.

We would all be equals.

As far as religion goes, I assume an attitude of strict tolerance (save, perhaps, for Scientology) would be observed.

[PTTG??]

Anyone who would be offended by reasonable religious practice, and/or anyone who would practice an unreasonably offensive religion, would not be welcome. That's not to say I would begrudge either of them, it's just for the sake of the group's coherence.

Keeping chickens: Absolutely. I feel a home is not complete without a coop.

Eating chickens: Quite possibly. We would need a butcher, though there are also exterior services that handle that.

Growing a garden: Absolutely.

Growing a farm: Possibly, but only if we had enough people to support it.

Growing a "garden": Depending on local laws. NZ or Canadian wilderness probably OK. Dunno about chile. US, only after CA leaves.

Hobbit home: Looks nice. Practical concerns: Rain, fire, earthquake, deer on roof, constructing enough for dozens of people. I could see a couple of these being built, but not all of the homes.

Again, flexibility and variety will be important so we can have both homes for families and permanent residents, guests and visitors, and college students either in class or out.

Canada: I'd prefer a more westerlie maritime climate to Manitoban Arctic. British Columbia would be good. In particular, there's the Queen Charlettes, which have a lot of open space.

[Vector]

And what's your feeling on the "income thing?"

[The Merchant Of Menace]

Hmm, I remember seeing something a while ago about this group who renovate and sell old military bunkers, plenty of space inside and they'd be located far from society so it'd have plenty of space outside too. That could be a possibility?

[Duke 2.0]

Hobbit home: Looks nice. Practical concerns: Rain, fire, earthquake, deer on roof, constructing enough for dozens of people.

Problem? that's a solution for meat.

[GlyphGryph]

And what's your feeling on the "income thing?"

My feelings are, it's irrelevant - Everyone who lives there needs to contribute at least a certain amount. "at least a certain amount" will probably be a flat monetary amount, though for renters this amount may be reduced by explicit agreement in exchange for a certain amount of work on various things that need to be worked on, and shareholders will mostly be exempt from this - they will be expected to do quite a bit around the place as well as being responsible for their share, though. As Vector said, we would all be equals - we might not all do the same thing, but we would all be expected to contribute an equal amount.

Let me lay out my proposed organizational structure a bit more, if anyone's interested:

Share-holders - People who have bought into ownership over the plot. Your only financial commitments are paying your share of taxes and utilities, but beyond that there is only what you owe on your share, if anything. I'm not sure how the specifics of loans work, but I know most people probably won't be able to buy a full share up front - they'll probably need to take out some sort of loan.

Renters - Renters commit to a certain number of months or a year, with monthly payments (in advance), and it works much like a basic tenant/landlord situation. In exchange for certain amounts of labour, the share-holders may wave a portion of the months rent (or even all of it). Hopefully, this will bring in enough money to support our various costs. If there's extra, after a certain amount is set aside for emergencies, it will likely be distributed to the shareholders to pay off their various loans or whatever. Realistically, there probably won't ever be enough extra for that to happen.

On Location:
I do sort of have my heart set on Washington, but Canada is okay as well.
Pros of Ontario : I can drive there in under a day right now, meaning I can personally check out property and look at stuff.
Cons of Ontario : My parents can drive there in under a day.
Like my current climate, but colder, meaning we'd probably want one building rather than several. You do NOT want to have to go outside to get to the kitchen in the winter.

I think we should try for a place that is Urban or Semi-Urban - most of us seem to have something approaching professional or university ambitions, which is hard to do without businesses or Universities nearby. So the suggestions about super-rural areas or middle-of-nowhere military bunkers probably aren't great ideas.

As far as growing our own food:
Chickens are a big yes, if possible.
Garden to supplement, also big yes.
Farm, no. Farm's are hard. Farm's are expensive. If we ever have enough money to start a farm, maybe, but that probably won't happen.

Again, flexibility and variety will be important so we can have both homes for families and permanent residents, guests and visitors, and college students either in class or out.

Though for the most part, we will REALLY want to limit guests, we can accept them when we have extra rooms. I think we can assume that either they or the person they are the guests of will be responsible for the associated costs. (Something we'd want to think about)

[Stas]

For the hobbit homes, the way they are built prevents rain getting in. Also if we get a few people to work on one house it could be done in a week or two.

For the farm, a small field is enough. Even a small garden will cause vegetables going everywhere.

Also, for the location. I believe that Canada would be a safer choice for our US members, seeing the general public's opinion of anything that approaches communism, and let's face it, we are discussing something very communistic.

If by "garden" you mean loldrawgz, then it should be out of the question.

Ah and for the butcher issue, no need to waste money on that, just give me an axe, a knife and a bucket.

[dragonshardz]

Hobbit house: I like.

Garden/animal husbandry: YAR!

LOLDrugz: NO.

Religion: As GlyphGryph said, I'd be very against anyone who cannot at the very least tolerate other's beliefs.

[RedWarrior0]

How about slow and subtle conversion to a semi-Lovecraftian cult?

[Realmfighter]

Only if we replace Mind numbing Terror with Overt Kinkiness.