12. Who We Live With

12.3 Pooling Resources

What I have already established for the efficiency of completing tasks applies even more strongly to possessions: a group can use its resources many times more efficiently than an individual.

•  Less living space is needed per familia member, and yet in the end everyone lives more luxuriously than they would alone (because many living areas for six people need to be only slightly larger than for one).

•  Presumably two cars are sufficient for six adults (with children it becomes more, though perhaps a minibus is bought instead), whereas every single person would need one of their own.

•  Many electrical appliances are needed only once or twice even for six adults (vacuum cleaner, stove, dishwasher, television, ...).

•  Those appliances kept twice in the familia for the sake of comfort offer the additional advantage of redundancy if one of them fails.

•  It is much more worthwhile to buy durable products, since they are paid for and used by several people. At the end of their long lifespan, they will have been more than worth their higher price (and it was better for the environment).

•  Since the necessary competencies are available (Crafts, Technology), better products can be selected and bought than if someone had to buy them without such knowledge.

Needing less for the same or better quality of life, while being able to choose better and more durable products, means that overall a familia can manage its resources far better than singles or nuclear families.

Which brings us to the question of possessions: Who owns what? How is property brought into the familia when joining it, and what happens to possessions if someone leaves?

 

Some things will still belong to individuals, others to the familia as a whole. When the familia is founded, or when a new person joins, a decision is made about what will be contributed to shared ownership because the group needs it, and what will not. For all contributed goods, their value and expected durability are determined (e.g. €500 and five years for this dishwasher).
Once this has been decided for all items, the contributed value for each member is added up and balanced out with money so that in the end everyone has contributed the same total amount in material value + money. If this is not possible because wealth is distributed too unevenly, then the familia members instead have different shares in the group property.

If a member leaves the familia, the total value of the familia property is calculated (taking into account the expected durability of the items as determined at the beginning), and the member is paid out according to the value of their share in money and goods (one of six members leaves the familia, all have equal shares in the group property ⇒ the person receives 1/6 of the group property).

If time conflicts arise over the usage of a good (such as a car), who gets to use it when should be settled with a usage list. There is surely a good app for something like that, and a fair result and high utilization thanks to a technical solution are far better than some missing out because nothing better was sought. Once such a solution has been introduced, it is easy enough to apply it to another item where it is useful (even if that is just children arguing over a game console).

The familia decides which costs are shared. At a minimum, this is everything needed for shared work (e.g. food for cooking), plus money for repairs and the replacement of shared goods.
Once it has been decided what all will be paid for jointly, the expected monthly costs per familia member can be calculated, which everyone then has to pay into the shared fund.

These costs can, for example, be broken down as follows:

•  Ongoing costs: rent, food, ...

•  Maintenance costs: reserves for repair and replacement of shared property, such as the dishwasher, calculated based on value and expected durability

•  Experimentation and expansion costs: money for things the familia does not yet own. Either because they are new technology, or because they are things the familia does not yet have but needs or wants (for example for children who have grown older). This category saves up the money for such purchases.

•  Emergency reserves: in case the familia unexpectedly needs money for something. If more accumulates here than makes sense, the monthly contribution for each person can be reduced accordingly.

If someone earns a lot but is too exhausted to still have enough energy for many familia tasks, the group can offer to let them buy their way out of part of their tasks. That person would then pay more money into the shared fund, in exchange for taking on fewer tasks. This should only be done for part of the tasks, though, since working together is also important for the cohesion of the familia and for the exchange of knowledge. Agreeing to such a trade becomes less problematic if another familia member wants to trade in the opposite direction at the same time: pay less money into the shared fund, in exchange for taking on more tasks. Then, all the others neither have to pay more money nor take on more tasks.

If someone contributes less money but does more tasks, that corresponds to the nuclear-family model with one main earner and one person who takes care of the household. So this basic principle is also possible in the familia. However, this only works if some members contribute enough money instead of everyone wanting to take on more tasks (or vice versa). There has to be a balance, which is why it is only possible with the consent of the familia. And even then, it will always mean an imbalance of power. Equal participation by everyone seems to me the best solution where it is possible.