Living Simply Provides Economic Shelter

Living Simply Provides Economic Shelter

[url=http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/home-garden/articles/green-tips/cp/home_family-living_simply_provides_economic_shelter/1ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com[/url ]

She also has no mortgage payment and chooses to live in an "intentional community," a partly shared space where $775 a month covers everything from utilities to meals.

"In one fell swoop, I pay for the roof over my head, the food in my stomach and the lights to read by. That's a big advantage," says Rainsberger, whose high-rise living space is part of the residential program at the Keystone Ecological Urban Center in Chicago's Uptown neighbourhood.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 8/16/2008 by sc2099]

Is this what people in the first world will be reduced to? Being forced to live together like college freshmen due to the unmanageable expense of living alone?

Some say people pooling resources is a good thing. I agree, as long as it's not the only choice because life outside a commune is simply too expensive.

"It's like a college dormitory, but with better conversation," she often jokes.

That's a mighty positive spin this woman is putting on being economically unable to live in a home of her own. Think about it this way: Would you want to share a few showers and a kitchen with 30 other people when you're 40? 50? Chasing a career? Raising a family?

It's fun when you're 18 and your biggest responsibility is juggling partying and attending class. When you're trying to pursue a career or raise children, how could anyone possibly deal with this kind of environment?

Or are we as a culture just brainwashed to believe that people must live alone, each family isolated from other families, not helping others and in turn not being helped ourselves?

I see the up and downside of both ways of living.

[url=http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/home-garden/articles/green-tips/cp/home_family-living_simply_provides_economic_shelter/1]ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com[/ur l]
(visit the link for the full news article)

Enlightening article (though you may want to edit your OP and fix the link, there's a small error on the end causing it to not work).

I agree, there are both upsides and downsides to living in such a situation...

However, one point I'd like to make for this type of living that you may find interesting, is that nowadays, with the average person having less close "friends" than the generations before them, and the general feeling of loneliness permeating strongly through modern countries, living in a close-knit commune-like environment would probably make these folks a bit more happy and probably more active on the whole. Perhaps it would counterbalance all the lonely, solitary activities we humans have been taking more part in. Personally, though, I doubt I would enjoy living in such a situation.

When attempting to look far into the future, which is fun but exceedingly difficult with any accuracy, one wonders how we will eventually solve the problem of high-density living and if solutions like this would be worth anything.

By the way, your post has introduced me to BTS! I feel so ignorant for posting topics on ATS that probably would've been a lot better off over here. I think you know what post I'm referring to. Thanks for the enlightenment and thanks for sharing.

Cheers!