My Communist Vision
Young families need one another
My wife grew up on a cul de sac in suburban Baltimore. I grew up on a cul de sac in suburban Saint Louis. We moved into our first house six months after our first child was born. Guess where we moved to? A cul de sac.
When a group of young families is situated on a cul de sac, it becomes something like a commune. The kids play together, out in the street or at one another’s houses. Parents babysit one another’s kids. They form carpools. The result is that each parent’s burden of caring for children is reduced.
Happy grandparents
Years later, what is the outcome? Most of our children are married. Many of them have children of their own. We and our neighbors are grandparents. We are happy and satisfied with our lives.
This sort of Communism is what people should aim for. We need more communes, in which young married couples have large families.
We are not Orthodox Jews, but Orthodox Jewry encourages communes by requiring adherents to attend synagogue and not allowing them to use machinery on the Sabbath. Forced to live within walking distance to a synagogue, they live close to one another. They naturally live in communes.
A good lifestyle is one that leads to having grandchildren. Ordinary heterosexual relationships are part of that lifestyle. I am not out to shame people who are LGBTQ. But for heaven’s sake, don’t shame people who are not!
I see no need to confuse young children by bringing them to “drag queen story hour” or giving them lessons in alternative sexuality well before they have reached puberty. If they are at all inclined to be heterosexual, encourage that. It is the path to having grandchildren.
People are more likely to have grandchildren if they get married and start having children in their early twenties. That means that you cannot spend your twenties accumulating school credentials and sex partners. You cannot wait until you have sufficient income to buy whatever you want. As a society, we should de-emphasize higher education, sexual exploration, and materialism.
These days, there are many housing developments that are senior-friendly. They may be limited to people who are over 55. This sort of housing discrimination is legal.
Why not have housing developments that are for young families? In order to move in, you must have at least one child under the age of 10? That would encourage the sort of communal arrangements that make it easier to be a parent.
Such a development could include a day-care center. Perhaps it would be staffed by parents, under a communal arrangement.
Households would remain distinct. The commune would not be a collective.
The commune would not be self-contained. Parents would go to work elsewhere. They would do their shopping elsewhere.
Communism at the level of the state is a terrible idea. Communism at the level of a small neighborhood is a lifestyle that can lead to grandchildren.
What children see as they grow up becomes normal, and they are likely to recreate that “normal” as adults. Multiple generations of your family lived on cul-de-sacs. I grew up far away from both sets of grandparents, so after college, I moved far away from my parents. That’s just what people did in my mind.
A friend told the story of a family of women who moved in next door. There was a grandmother, a mother, and several young daughters, but no men. One of the girls wandered into his garage one morning where he was working and asked him why in the world he lived with his wife and children. That wasn’t normal to her. My guess is that she grew up and had a family that was normal in her eyes.
Another home run for Arnold Kling. One of his longest hits of the year — into the upper bleachers. Look at him as he casually jogs the bases: almost no emotion; just another day for him at “work.”