@SallyMc We occupied an empty house in a rich suburb of Stuttgart, Germany,three storeys, with a lovely garden and steps leading up to the front door. As soon as the neighbors found out that we were a commune, they alerted the owners and their agent. i was nominated to represent the commune. I was visibly pregnant , well groomed and well spoken, so we were able to negotiate an agreement . We paid a monthly lease which included heat and water. It was a generous agreement for both sides. The house was divided like alayer cake; in the basement lived the junkies and runaways. On the ground floor lived my little family , my partner was in the US Army and another couple plus two or more young girls. On the second floor lived the anarchists- they were rich kids wih revolution on thie minds. Lots of th erent money came from the second floor people and in return, we fed them regularly and participated in the hairbrained schemes ( no more than hanging up leaflets in bus shelters and the stores we shopped in. We had a loose schedule for the household chores, with laundry being the least loved activities. We shared everything; food, beer and wine, hashish, whatever. Bodo, the freaked out kid from the basement, worked in the garden with me. He loved it as much as I did. We lived there until our youngest daughter was six months old and allowed on a military airplane. We were sad to leave the commune, although the presence of the CIA and FBI agents near the house was getting on our nerves. My partner, then husband, had a high security clearnace which he lost when we moved into the commune. After we started the eprocess for my emigration as a military wife, they backed off a bit, maybe they finally saw that we were not a danger to the free world but decent, semi-straight living people with a bunch of hippie friends.

@SallyMc It's funny you should ask that. We thought we were living after the American model for communes. True, there was no back to the land movement, because their was no "free"land at all. After WW2, all the ethnic Germans came from the East, fleeing before the Russians, and took their share of the land that could be recovered, rebuilt and reconstituted. German population density is at least 10 times that of the US. We followed the famous Hog Farm in the news, but having land in Germany is the privilege of the very rich or the very entitled. The possibilities here are endless. Just think of the land in the Ozarks, in the Rocky Mountains, in the mid west. In Arizona I have seen whole towns that are abandoned. In cities, whole blocks are empty houses . All those places would be ideal for starting a community. But American attitude will have to drastically change from me to us, and the issues with black/white and brown will have to be dealt with daily, not only within the community but also without of the border of a community. I think it i harder now because we would have to give up things and behaviors and attitudes in order to make it successful.

@Babydoll I really am serious. I have no children ,no family and I was always looking to think outside the box

@Kojaksmom I'm child free by choice

I'm in

@Babydoll sounds good.

Some of my female friends and I have spoken about this. To age alone and have nobody to note you are slipping or whatever is a scary prospect. We've talked about getting a plot of land where everyone could have their own separate small cottage or home but we would be there to check on each other and maybe periodically have a group gathering. I don't think in general it's a good idea to expect more than one woman to share a kitchen....LOL. We would pool resources for things needed for the entire compound (such as getting all the lawns mowed or whatever) but each person would have their own separate finances and household budget. I honestly think this is the wave of the future. Lots of women have no children (or children that live far away or are not the sort to stick around to check on Mom all the time) and are divorced or widowed or never got married to begin with. This is a way that those of us who want to maintain our independence but don't want to be isolated could have something like a family without non-family actually living under our roof.

@seaspot_run I think it is an excellent idea, I lived in an "over 55" complex from 2009-2013, a year or so before it had opened up to all ages, so there were a couple of young families and I was only 51. But there were 49 houses in the complex, say 5 families with kids, most were older couples, but also about a dozen widows or older divorced women. I was the only single male and had a 14/15 year old foster child with me. It was ok, but would be better if smaller, more planned and with people who were friends. That said, I still see ex neighbours from time to time. It was one of these neighbours who put em onto the idea. She is quite a bit younger than I but lonely. I suggested she make friends male or female for future traval and such. She hoped she and I would be neighbours till our last days, continue to share meals etc. She was too cute to remain friends so close as other female friends didn't like it and too religious for us to ever be any more than friends. I think an arrangement where people look out for each other as you suggest, pool resources on some things and just be less lonely. I am still lucky in that I am surrounded by friends 1/2 my age who I do things with, but I am aging and can not do as much. I don't wish to restrict their activities. Co-housing and co-operative group homes are starting to take off here.

you

@Babydoll the thing I've noticed, at least it seems this way to me, is that as people grow older, 60's, 70's and beyond, they (we) often get very entrenched in our views, or go the opposite way and become very tolerant of many things we could not stand before.

No doubt.

@SallyMc Thanks for quoting Karl Marx, Sally. The degree to which you, my fellow citizens ( yes I am a citizen now) are not educated about communism is astounding to me. There must have been a total re-education in this country that put a dark picture into people's mind about what those systems are, how they could or could not work and what the obvious dangers to the American system are.

@Babydoll sod that I'm not shaving my legs for nobody !

communism works if everyone sticks to the rules. you never sore Stalin in a larder and a small house. ants do it perfectly

People are confusing communism with socialism. Socialism is voted on, communism is forced on the population. Neither works well because some like to think they are better than the others and are deserving of more.