What:
An intentional ecocity built from the ground-up to have a low environmental impact, or a positive impact. The over-arching design is to use as much of both high and low-tech as possible. What we mean by this is to use high-tech solutions where it is more environmentally, socially, and economically beneficial, while equally using low-tech where the high tech option has more negative consequences to the same three metrics.
This isn’t merely a company, or a city, it isn’t a free-to-join commune, or just a job. The purpose is also part economic, part social, and part cultural experiment. We seek to offer people a better alternative to the current sociocultural and economic norms, a more fair life plan, a more equitable piece of the economic pie, more free time, and more connection to society, community, and oneself.
In short we believe that life is not supposed to be dominated by debt, living hand-to-mouth, or paycheck-to-paycheck. Work that benefits our society should be rewarded, while jobs that just extract value do not belong in civilized society.
The basic ideas that form the groundwork of this project are not new, nor are they particularly radical, that the advancements of automation and technology should benefit society, and not a particular group of people. As we increase automation, pay should be raised, and work hours reduced. Inequality in justice, politics, or society adds no value to the progress or advancement of humanity, and hold us back from our true potential.
Modular design so that as our needs increase we already have plans and funds available to make the investments our community needs.
Major Changes and Trade-offs:
The roads will be for public transport and pedestrians, there is no need for personal vehicles, but if you prefer a bicycle feel free.
The cornerstone of this city will be a $0 cost of living, essentially flipping the idea of a universal basic income on its head. No one should pay for the basic necessities of life,
You don’t get a regular paycheck; instead, for your daily needs you are given a form of local currency that is designed to provide you with your basic needs and wants. However, in rejection of the failed individualist 401K and IRA plans, you earn a percent of equity in the capital and profits that the company and town builds or produces.
Income-pooling – activity and earnings from outside of the community are pooled into the investment fund used to further enhance the community and provide for our members. You still accrue interest and equity based on the money you bring into the community.
When fully functional we expect the average work-week for a full-time resident to be about 15 hours per week. This frees up the rest of your normal work week to learn a skill, write a poem or book, come up with new ideas, paint or create art, or use your skills and talent to work in the field of your training and education. This type of freedom is completely missing in the modern neoliberal economy, where desperation and need push people to accept worse pay and higher rent than in the past. We are tired of being offered a raw deal and then being told that expressing our desires can only be done through the ballot box, to lower expectations, and allow “time for change to take place”. We thoroughly reject these anti-progressive ideas and instead have chosen to institute our own way of doing things. Rather than talking about making the world better, or pushing for a change of one law or two, we choose to build the world we want to live in.
Community Make-Up
We are seeking a diverse range of candidates, both skilled and unskilled labor, with a healthy mix of backgrounds, and education levels.
To start we are looking for about 350 people, or 0.000001% of the United States, with a max capacity of about 400,000 or about 0.00114% of the US population.
Additionally we would like to have a flow of temporary residents and employees, to allow others to experience how it works first hand. This would include nurses, teachers, doctors, and other careers that require a certain number of hours before certification.
When the community is fully developed there will be one university, one community college, four high schools, 8 elementary schools, and 16 pre-K and day care locations. With enough water and waste treatment facilities to handle up to 500,000 people during the rainy season.
Our company and city are open to people of every race, creed, class, ethnic, political, and disability. We are an equal opportunity employer, and work hard at maintaining this basic sociocultural and economic cornerstone of fairness of opportunity and equitable treatment of others.
Pets:
Must be neutered or spayed, house and obedience trained (if applicable). We love animals, preserving and being good stewards for the environment and natural habitats are one of our five major tenets as an organization and community, but if you are strongly considering submitting an application we would ask you to hold off on any pet purchases. This request is partially economic, partially environmental, and partially logistical. First, while we love animals, figuring out how that would factor into other costs is something that we haven’t completed yet. Second, we love animals, but pets do have an impact on the environment, so not all animals would be able to be here, we are also a nature preserve. Third, we do a lot of research into our suppliers, their products, and transportation lines, the time it takes to do that, and come to an agreement with an outside company is a logistical nightmare.
Foundational Tenets of our Society – Totally Stolen Wholesale
One should strive to act with compassion and empathy towards all creatures in accordance with reason.
The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo your own.
Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs.
People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and resolve any harm that may have been caused.
Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.
Crime and Punishment
No armed regular police. Most disturbances will be met by a 4-person team, a social worker, a therapist, and two threat-reduction specialists (think of a body guard trained in martial arts). Most problems would be dealt with socially and in-house, using town-hall style discussions. However, it is inevitable that someone will do something at some point that is so bad, that this system will be unable to handle it. Crimes such as rape, sexual assault, targeting of children, excessive violence, etc would be first investigated internally and the appropriate authorities involved.
First, you need to take a minute to answer a question. “Why do most people who commit crimes, commit them?” Given that most crimes shouldn’t be crimes in the first place, why do people commit the crimes like: robbery, murder, muggings? Need, they need something and cannot afford economically. Now there are other crimes, like rape or child molestation that frankly cannot be dealt with using the above methods, they are too serious and their repetition is too injurious to allow. In cases like that, the state or county law enforcement would be at the fore. Additionally, building and maintaining a prison is expensive, since we would still pay taxes, it would be a fair use of them, even if we disagree about the justice that the extant criminal ‘justice’ system has to offer.
Planned and Desired Partnerships
Resiliency, Sustainability, Ecological, Green, and Environmental Technology and Research
Alternative Energy Technology and Research
Agriculture, Husbandry, Aquaculture, and Permaculture Technology and Research
Colleges and Universities with sustainability, resiliency, sociology, psychology, nursing, orthodontic, medical, urban planning, policy studies, international relations, political science, or related programs.
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