Communal living: Used to be really into the idea, but I've been extremely burned by it over the past year. "In theory" it works. Pool money, buy bulk, "we own it", happy smiling faces: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~atwu/firstcultural/domes/savethedomes_566x800.jpg In practice? Social structures develop, your problems become everyone's problems, the "cool members" bring corruption with them, any sort of accountability is absent, and people end up building a bubble in which they become ignorant of the realities outside their community. It's charming to see years upon years of people's afternoon projects become permanent fixtures of a house, but the beer bottles, the plates of rotten food, the fire hazards, the leaking pipes, and the rats start to erode those feelings when they become a part of your daily life.