this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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A lot of the things we do on a daily or weekly basis have ways of doing them that can either be private or communal, some of these which we do not think to consider as having that characteristic.

For example, bathing in the Roman Empire used to be communal, but then Rome fell and citizens in the splinter countries began taking baths privately.

Receiving mail is another example. There are countries which don't have mailboxes and everyone gets their mail at the post office in the PO boxes. It was the United States which pioneered the idea of the modern mail system, which is why we associate it as a private act.

There are activities as well which don't have any history as jumping between one or the other that might benefit from it, for example I think towns might benefit if internet was free and freely accessible but only at the local library.

What's a non-communal aspect of life you think should be communal?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Power plants, power grid, water grid, post, 5G networks, parking lots payment, visa cards should be state based, public health insurance, health system incl dentists, pension system, education, Kindergarden should all be completely public with no intention of profit. All parallel private companies need to be forbidden in this space

Basically reversing the privatization politics of the last 50 years in the EU because politicians are too lazy to organize this

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

Community canneries still exist, but they used to be way more popular. In rural communities where people grow a lot of their own food, people can their own food, but pressure canners take a lot of time for a single batch to come up to pressure, cook, and cool.

Community canneries have much bigger pressure canners where you could feasibly can everything in one batch. It's also really enables people sharing surpluses, trading, etc.

Many hobbies are better shared, too. If you have 20 people sharing a super high quality "item", they will have a better experience than if each of those people had to buy their own crappy versions.

Basically, a whole lot of things can be "libraried".

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 hours ago

Property of the means of production

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I'd say mail boxes, at least in the area where I live. Around 10 years ago, our neighborhood was mandated to have our own separate boxes for mail/newspaper next to our house, but before then you'd have one group box for the whole neighborhood, with separate sections for each house. It's much more efficient for delivering that way since you just go to one box rather than door to door, though it can be a bit annoying having to walk to the box every day to get your daily newspaper.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

Having lived in a few places like that with group boxes, it contributes to a mild sense of community as well assuming you regularly see the same people. My mother used to go get her mail at the same time as a couple neighbors we had specifically because she'd met them picking up mail the first time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 hours ago

In Canada the mail delivery has shifted to communal mailboxes in new communities as a cost savings measure. Problem is asshole theives who smash them open and steal everyones mail at once.

We have free wifi at our library, as well as a lot of other things like meeting spaces you can book.

More communal transport seems to be needed. After work from home, and occasional bus to work, the time I had to drive to the office to swap equipment and sit in rushhour traffic for an hour was painful. Like there is no way every single person needs unique travel to work

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 hours ago

The US started using mailboxes 14 years after the UK

In 1849, the Royal Mail first encouraged people to install letterboxes to facilitate the delivery of mail. Before then, letterboxes of a similar design had been installed in the doors and walls of post offices for people to drop off outgoing mail.

In 1863, with the creation of Free City Delivery, the US Post Office Department began delivering mail to home addresses.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve had clothes stolen in shared laundry rooms. Not a fan.

[–] ScreaminOctopus 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

This would be solved if coin op washers locked. You could take the key like in a gym locker room. They'd probably have to charge per cycle + time to keep people from leaving them all day.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

It was stolen from a drying rack. There were no dryers available.

btw: You replied to a comment that I have deleted. I accidentally commented in the main thread but wanted to reply to another comment. This one was probably not removed for everyone.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

simple tools like guns, hammers, screwdrivers etc. I still think you should be able to own them in case you need them more often or don't have the time to get them due to an immidiate repairing. But I've read some lemmy post where some guys public library offered tools and I think that's a great idea

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

Also look for makerspaces, they provide all kinds of tools but it's expected that you work on projects there and not at home. Not sure if you can borrow stuff.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

We had that where I grew up, but mostly heavier machine tools like stuff to cut firewood, trailers to haul stuff etc. Cost just $10 a year and you could borrow it as much as you needed. Banger of an idea to be honest.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, no one wants to buy a log splitter and store it for 360 days a year, but those few days you can use it, it's really useful.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 29 minutes ago

Yeah, it really is a perfect item for communal ownership.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Child-rearing! Child-rearing! Child-rearing! I hate the nuclear family model!!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I've been seeing that shift a lot recently. For instance, a lot of friends will work out a deal where their kids spend the day with their grandparents once or twice a week to save on day care costs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Nono I mean a full-on third, fourth etc. parent. Someone who takes care of the child basically from birth, who is as trusted as "mom" or "dad". Maybe even a second person responsible for breastfeeding the child.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

I dunno about that one, chief... I don't trust people to not be weirdos or to be properly housebroken anymore. Certainly not westerners-- I'd have to do a full-on, US Government style background check on a mf before I was comfortable putting my child in another person's hands.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 hours ago

I don't want to be a full time parent, but I'd happily teach an inquisitve kid the few things I know for a few hours a week

[–] [email protected] 6 points 12 hours ago

Maybe it's being a product of my environment but there are so few things that are currently private that I would want to have to do publicly. I don't generally really want to contend with other people not shared facilities more than I have to. I definitely don't want communal bathing. I can stomach public transport, which is already a thing, but then I tend to spurn it where I live more often than not because of the lack of viability and convenience. I guess I would say I wish that where I was specifically that transport was more communal than it is now. I don't see how it really could be though because of the nature of where I live and the lack of density and the bad urban planning that led to everything being very spread out, but it'd be nice.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

A couple of ideas:

  • Home Ownership. I know condos exist, but it seems to me that we need a solution for home ownership that is accessible and ecologically viable. Traditional houses (and even duplex's/townhomes) are massively inefficient from a climate perspective, not to mention the space requirements and cost.

  • Child rearing. In college, I learned that children were typically raised by multiple neighbors, in order to lessen the strain on parents. I think it is unrealistic and unhealthy to expect people to nearly kill themselves attempting to raise a child for the first couple of years.

  • Recreation space. I realize this is mostly an American thing, but lawns are a colossal waste of space. To be of any use at all, they have to be at least half an acre, and realistically, there's no reason every single family needs their own outdoor recreation space. Plus, a tiny minority of people even use them these days.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I know condos exist,

What's your objection to condos in this case?

I live in an apartment co-op which in many ways is excellent. Highly efficient in both energy, economy and effort required from me. I'm not sure that I'll ever want to live in a house, this is probably the ideal state for me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

It may not be the case everywhere, but here condos are kind of a shit deal. They cost as much as a small house, they're very difficult to sell, and the board can force you to renovate your unit out of your own pocket.

The last one doesn't sound bad, but a big reason to buy a home is to fix your living expenses for retirement, and being told to tear out your flooring because Shelly upstairs likes muave and all units must now have muave floors can be a real problem.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

Child rearing.

Daycare.

Recreation space.

Parks.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 15 hours ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

This is an ideal space for Steve Jobs to put both his feet into

[–] AlligatorBlizzard 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)
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[–] [email protected] 31 points 18 hours ago (7 children)

Cooking. Let's all just cook one big meal each week and split it among 6 other people, and receive 6 meals in return.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 17 hours ago

You know, that's not a bad idea. I only have to make one meal, but I get more variety in my food each day.

I bet it's easy to get going to, you only need a few friends / family / neighbours to get started

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Transportation and gardening.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Look, if I could get three or four more sets of hands to put down the maximum amount of cannabis plants in my backyard, know they'd participate in the cleaning post-harvest, and all I'd have to give up was a couple Oz's per set of hands? God, I'd be growing more than two or three plants a season, wouldn't I?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

Heck yea, woukd be a sweet setup.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 16 hours ago

Communal gardens are a thing in many cities. My experience with them however has been skin to a HOA full of Karens

[–] [email protected] 9 points 15 hours ago

Private property, specifically your toothbrush, comrade.

There’s always someone who doesn’t know so I’m contractually obligated to say that by property we mean the means of production and not any other personal belongings.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (5 children)

Laundry. Why do each of us need to have a machine and space to leave clothes to dry when we could have a common space for that?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Counterpoint: laundromats are some of the most boring and depressing places. Harsh fluorescent lighting, always some TV droning away with an annoying channel you'd never choose to watch and don't want to have to hear, commercial machines that vary from one laundromat to another so as an occasional user, you never know if you need to bring quarters or if it'll take a card, plus sometimes people feel entitled to take your clothes out of the dryer if they want the specific machine you're using, etc etc etc. Plus you can't just run a load at your leisure, you've gotta schlep all the way to the laundromat with your clothes and detergent. I get why they're necessary but I'm glad I've got my own washer & dryer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 42 minutes ago

Yeah laundromats are annoying. I was rather thinking to have some space in the apartment building to share with neighbors.

It sucks to have drying racks taking up all my living space.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

The place I use lately has a bookshelf and a machine that serves free coffee. Pretty comfy in there tbh

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 hours ago

I’ve had clothes stolen in shared laundry rooms. Not a fan.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 hours ago

Communal laundry rooms are quite common on some places.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

This is considered standard equipment in all apartments in Sweden, both co-op and rentals.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

When I hear about the washing rooms where women would go to do their laundry, they sound so fun. A lot of work of course, but just a great place to sit back and gossip.

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