Self Organizing Community Proposal

I'm a maker by nature.
I have acquired various resources.
I'd like to see some self organizing community based cooperatives.

I'd rather build something than buy from some faceless corporation. I'm sure I'm not alone, in this regard. I've always been good at getting around obstacles. The more people that are involved, the greater the chances of overcoming obstacles. The more people involved, the lower the burden on any one person. If someone doesn't have the patience, knowledge, time or desire for a particular part of a project, someone else might love that part. Someone might not want to participate in the doing, but would be more than willing to contribute something to the effort, if nothing more than watching someone else succeed. We live in a world where we are taught to compete, rather than to cooperate. I think it's it time to build a culture of cooperation. The idea is to build self sufficient communities, so taking care of needs would be the first thing to start with. It appears to me that the present system is failing, and people are opting out. There is historic low labor participation, and the time appears to be now get started.

Human needs are food, clothing and shelter. If we take care of our needs, we don't have to compensate somebody else for ignoring their needs for us. We can take are of some of their needs, while they do the same for us. We end up working for over about a third of every year to fund Govzilla's war machine. The war machine impoverishes the people, and the war mongers profit from both the financing of the war, as well as the reconstruction.

The system depends on our cooperation, and people seem to want change. Humanity thrives on novelty. Repetition and regimentation leads to boredom. We're looking for immersion. Time for a change. No need to fight the system. We are the system. The controllers don't do anything but give orders. They live in ivory towers, eat caviar and drink champagne. They didn't build the ivory towers: we did. They didn't harvest the caviar. It was us. They didn't make the champagne. We did the work for them. And we gave it all to them, for a pittance. And then, they 'allow' us to pay exorbitant prices for whatever they see fit to allow us to have. The leftovers. And, we pay for it with whatever slave wages are left over, after paying them the tribute they demand as taxes. They depend on us. They need us. We don't need them. It's time to stop cooperating with them.

As the system puts lower and lower wage slaves out of business, they are failing because of their own plans. In order to replace cheaper labor, the cost of the technology to do this had to drop. This meant that the technology had to be cheap and widespread. Cheap enough, and widely available enough that the populace can now afford it. The problem has been that the populace hasn't noticed this, because the school system has created specialization. This has divided the populace, and made it easier for the corporations keep wages low.

Time to rally the populace. I've always been a bit more independent than most people. Rather than look to others for help, I've tended to look to others for knowledge only after I reach a roadblock. And I usually don't find too many obstacles I can't get around. Most people don't give themselves enough credit, in this regard. We've been indoctrinated with the belief that 'you can't fight city hall. We don't need to fight. Fighting only justifies their control system. There's way too many of us for them to control, so they rely on us controlling ourselves for them. We only have to start realizing the extent that we cooperate with system, to start making changes. Replace the parts of the system that you are capable of, and that part of the system will disappear. All you need to do is observe and know yourself.

The system has a 'one size fits all' approach. Which fits nobody. Make something foolproof, and only a fool will want to use it. Mass produced means 'run of the mill''. The populace is turning away, but they don't even recognize it yet. Take a look at the fast food restaurants. The parking lots are empty. The corporate answer is to lower prices. And lower quality. And get rid of labor. Which results in a runaway failure.

How difficult would it be to organize a community kitchen? How much effort would it take to gather the resources? How many people have worked for and managed an operation for some impersonal corporation? When the economy fails, what happens to these facilities?

The possibilities for self organizing communities are here. Keep an eye out for the possibilities. Like pizza? What happens when a chain fails? They depend on some low priced labor to show up and slave away, for little pay. Get enough people together, and how hard would it be to run a kitchen? The pizza franchises used to have stand alone buildings. Now, they're in strip malls. All it takes is enough people who would participate.

It's not rocket science or brain surgery. With enough people looking for opportunities, a decent sized cooperative restaurant facility could be started as a club. With a contribution of something like ten dollars, how many would it take to rent a restaurant facility that went bankrupt? Cut out the corporate overhead, and would it be possible to pay someone a dollar for a hamburger over the costs? If they served twenty burgers an hour, they'd be getting over twice as much as they would at a fast food restaurant.

And that's just one example. Other possibilities include buying cooperatives. Just set up a wish list and look into volume discounts. Get a group of people want a certain item to place a mass order. Deal direct with manufacturer and cut the distributors out. What would be needed to take delivery by a truck, and distribute the product? Look at all the chain stores that are failing.

I have a variety of tools and experience. I'm a woodworker, an electronic designer and builder, a computer user and programmer. I've taught electronics. I have woodworking tools that aren't used as much as I'd like. Same thing with electronic equipment. I've got a simple 3D printer I haven't had the motivation to get up and running. I've got tools to build golf clubs, guitars, electronics and many other things.I've done a lot of programming, from machine control to data processing. I'd like to work with others, to produce value for the community. I like open source projects, and I'd like to share my efforts, for anyone who wants to participate.

I'm looking for others who would get together to find a common space to work together. I'm seeing locations that are for rent, and I expect to see more, unless people start changing things. Leaving it up to the government is a sure way to pay too much and get too little in return, for too much effort. Government is leaving it up to someone else to care. I've some ideas for some software that don't require a central location, as well.

I'd like to get people together to share the resources and contribute their own resources, as well. I'm sure there is a diverse group of people who would like to participate to some extent. Enthusiasm is more important to me than experience. Participation of many people is the best way to plan for success. If only one member keeps it going, that's all it takes. If the entire success depends on a single person, the plan fails when that person fails.

Having access to resources, with the simple investment of showing up and communicating lowers the entry barriers. It's easy to find reasons why something won't work. Sometimes, a simple nod of encouragement is all an idea requires to bring an idea to completion.

Please comment if any part of this plan seems interesting. It's not about a single person.