Re: [pf] we took the wrong track, in the '50s and '60s

by Molly Williams

11 December 2000 02:32 UTC

> How many people on this list, if given a computer, 2 phone lines, and a way
> to tie to a network at their jobs could do their jobs from home?  How many
> others might be willing to share housing with those out in the country who
> did telecommute, and instead of working for the "man" were to contribute
> instead to the pooling of resources and tasks like meals, laundry, cleanup,
> gardening, etc.?  Yes, I'm talking about a communal type effort of home
> sharing, if not a full blown intentional community.  I suspect there are
> many more people like me, who could happily support this new direction.  It
> could do so much to help everyone involved, including Gaia, and also assist
> in getting our population more evenly distributed and transit needs down to
> a minimum.  I hope we are seeing the next great "back to the land"
> movement.  Maybe we'll even do it right this time...
 
I agree with you, tully. I'm fortunate that I don't have to work for
money, so I don't have any commute and use the car only twice a week --
once for errands and a volunteer job, and the other day for another
volunteer job. I could quit volunteering on site, but I choose not to. I
also do a lot of volunteering from home (Web site management). So, I am
essentially someone who shares housing with another person who "goes to
work" to support us financially.

My husband has a very easy but long (IMO) commute, about 35 mins each
way. It's pleasant, no traffic jams anywhere on the route, and he
doesn't mind the time spent, but I mind the gasoline spent and his time
lost. It also seems crazy in bad winter weather to drive to a job he
could do from home. He would much rather work from home, at least 3 days
a week (if not all), but his current company (he consults for a company
based in Boston, and has been on site at Anthem/Blue Cross health
insurance for 6 years) is not interested in telecommuting at all. Tom is
a programmer and can dial in to the databases at work, so it's certainly
feasible, just not palatable to his company, apparently. This seems like
such a waste to me -- a waste of our time and money; a waste of
resources like gas, oil, the car; and a waste of potential productivity
for the company.

What will it take to motivate companies to really consider and implement
telecommuting?

> accessed at $56K, hence the increased (ha!) tax value I pay.  There is no
> need to purchase at the limit of one's paycheck.  Not only do we pay
> terrible interest payments for years, we also pay property taxes on that
> high value forever.  There are always places available at half the housing

Please don't get me wrong -- we pay much less for taxes and for the
actual house/property here than we ever did in Maryland. I was able to
quit my job for good when we moved here because it's so cheap. We
definitely downscaled!

> I think everyone uses public schools whether they personally have children
> in them or not.  The alternatives of crime, prison, welfare, etc., is the
> far costlier alternative IMO.  The child we school might not need to mug us
> later.

I have heard this argument, but I don't really buy it. We all benefit
from EDUCATION, which is not the same as public schooling. I think much
of the taxpayers' money is wasted on public education now. My sister is
a teacher and I know a lot of her day is taken with tending to behaviour
problems, shuffling kids to and from the nurse for their meds, filling
out paperwork and CYA forms, and teaching silly stuff.

> I have a friend in Baltimore who was also mugged, the only other person I
> know to have it happen to them.  Baltimore must be in serious
> trouble.  Could it possibly have something to do with the funky low rent
> places like Fells Point becoming all high class condos?  I lived for awhile

Fear not -- there's lots of ungentrified areas in Baltimore! I think a
lot of the problem is that the central downtown area empties out on the
weekends, leaving those few of us who lived/recreated there without
"strength in numbers" (or a crowd). The Harborplace area has lots of
upscale shopping now, but I would guess that 90% of people who visit it
don't wander more than a block away from the shiny stores. We rented
near a statte office building and during the week that meant a lot of
people around; on the weekend, it meant no one around, and that's where
the bus stop was, where I sometimes waited for close to an hour for the
bus I wanted on a Sat. or Sunday. Other areas of Balto. City are more
populated, both by the poor and by the middle-class. 

~ Molly