Are there successful Co-operatives

[oldman60]

I have been wondering if it makes sense to consider a co-operative as opposed to going it alone.

My thought is that several people/families would bring a considerable amount of tallent, know how and resourses to an endeavor. I am also aware that these arrangements bring some risks if somebody gets the urge to move on.

I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with this and can give feedback.

[Deberosa]

Personally I think you can be cooperative with others around you without formalizing the arrangement and making yourself dependent on the "group think". The longer I am in this area where I am now the more connections I have made for sharing information and trading goods.

I don't think one person (or a family even) can be experts at all things but for those that you don't have you trade with others.

As soon as you have something like a cooperative you have someone in charge and then rules and then control and then also freeloaders. It's just the way human nature seems to work out from what I've experienced.

[oldman60]

Thanks for the sage advise. I'm sure that my question has more to do with my fear of falling (commitment) than anything else.

[rockymtngirl]

I found a site recently trying to form a co-op. But it is $2200 buy in to go toward their land/compound. The more I read the more I thought - wow this kinda sounds like a Jim Jones deal or similar grouping - you had to submit an applicaiton for approval and they had to evaluate your skills and whether they felt you 'fit' in with their group. Thanks but I thhink I'll go it alone...

[dkemple1]

I have often thought of that myself. I was thinking about trying to get all my friends together to buy some land and then we can as individuals build our homes with each others help and support. We could have a community type garden. Everyone would share the harvest after it was put up and preserved. I think the hardest part would be getting the others involved. I would do it in a minute. It would be easier to buy a large chunk of land with several different people involved.

[walls0stone]

their are very very few people I'd even think of doing anything like that with...it's like having a business partner or marrage. How many people start churches and it works for at time, then it splits... or they get into somthing and then it falls all apart.

Also, in talking to many friends, we've seen people show up and do the off the grid, back woods...no more city gig for 5 years, but sooner or later, the wife wants to have a hot tub and they have a TV again and it's on the the next fad.

maybe that's not YOU...but is the other guy as willing to stick it out forever?

[walls0stone]

Hey I got a great idea..get along with the others around you.. don't post or be a dork about the sissy 2 acres you could get..and maybe, just maybe you could raise a garden on a few bits of land he's no using.. wow.. what a conspet.

[WileyCoyote]

Sure, there are successful co-ops - they are called "small towns". ;D

I actually posed this question a few months ago - maybe a year ago... Some folks said that it didn't work, for some of the reasons stated here. Well, since then, we have moved to a tiny tiny town where some folks co-operate. Some don't of course - and that's their perogative. Some here bake, some make sausage, some grow vegetables, most work on cattle ranches, drive trucks or teach at the school. But people help each other to their abilities. Some go to the larger towns and pick up supplies as requested for others. Isn't that what "co-operating" is? Each one putting in what he or she can, and trading for what he or she needs?

Since folks found out that DH can fix any small or large engine that isn't run on computer chips, he has become quite the celebrity! ;D Already his shop is filling with small jobs. And he didn't hang out a shingle or get a business license; he trades. Always has, but in this town, at least it is equal... not - "I'll do something fo you someday".

Strikes me that a co-op - as long as one is not solely dependent on it for land, permission what to do with one's life or land, or rules and regulations - can work, will work, much better. Besides, if push comes to shove, it's nice to know that one can occasionally sleep without worrying about one's backyard or windows. As Hermie in "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" said - "Let's be independent - together!" ;)

[ryanmercer]

"Are there successful Co-operatives"

Sure... look at the Amish :)

[Cutter]

I live in a mountain community that is broken up into 4 subdivisions. The one I live in is about a hundred homes all on a half acre. about 5 miles down the road is another then two more in the next 10 miles. In our area there is one road in and I can see the whole subdivision banning together for the common good. Some hunt, I am an ex-butcher, some have gardens and everyone has guns. Maybe not an organized commune but a like minded group. Of the people I know here we have ex-police, militayr and even one guy that makes silencers for the FBI. I'm sure all that knowledge will come together when the time calls for it.

[walls0stone]

. Maybe not an organized commune but a like minded group. Of the people I know here we have ex-police, militayr and even one guy that makes silencers for the FBI. I'm sure all that knowledge will come together when the time calls for it.

Sorry but I can see you with a blade, hang'n with the others...

"That's not a knife....This is a knife" toss blade, stick lib in the head...he he

[MYellowRose]

I've thought about looking into something along this line but about the only thing I would be able to offer would be child-care as I'm now severely limited in what I can do physically. I don't think anywhere would want me and I'm not willing to turn over all of my income to such an arrangement as was necessary in all the places I've read about!

[ryanmercer]

One of the ladies at work... is always telling me "now let us know if you ever start a commune or co-op" I can think of a handful of people at work that would gladly do it... but I don't think it'll work out too well. You really just need a community that all cares about each other and wants to help out.

[bookwormom]

of course there are groups that coexist very succesfully, have been for hundreds of years. they are called monastaries, convents. They work very well because they are extremely reglemented and everybody followes the rules. I am all for the small town community Wiley and Deberose are endorsing. That can work very well. I do what I can where I am right here. I just traded raspberries for apples. As much as I complain about the lousy soil, my native neighbor wants to start mulching because she saw the benefit of it at my place. I promised another neighbor I would take her mushroom hunting if we ever get enough rain. I gave her a bunch of plants in the spring and she gave me a mattress cover (they make the things where she works). I have in the past taught homeschool kids a foreign language. I think it works best if every one has his own house, garden etc. but rather than keep up with the Jones help each other out.