At a recent gathering in honor of the 150th anniversary of Vassar, alumna Meryl Streep told the audience:
“Right after graduating I moved to a commune in Vermont for just a year,” Ms. Streep went on. “I got sick of it quickly enough. It was actually so uncommunal. It was really like, ‘That’s my milk, that’s your milk. No, I’m sure. That is definitely my milk, and that is your milk.’ Of course, all the girls did all the work.”
This quote, which appeared in a short piece in the New York section of today’s Wall Street Journal, reminded me of a series that periodically runs in The New York Times. OK, I may be the only one who thinks of it as a series. But anyway I call it the “Why Communism Doesn’t Work” series.
There’s a co-op in my former neighborhood of Park Slope which (unlike some co-ops that just require that users pay a fee) asks that all members spend some amount of time working at the store. So every couple of years, there’s a story about the ways that the typically upper-middle class professionals are shirking their duties because (surprise, surprise) psychiatrists, investment bankers and lawyers don’t actually think that stacking broccoli is a very good use of their time. The co-op leadership threatens to revoke their privileges, etc. etc.
The series reached new heights of hilarity last week with this article, which discussed the recent allegation that Park Slopers were paying their nannies to take their shifts for them. Jeez, you knew the party leaders were never going to be out picking the crops with the “workers,” but have these folks no shame?
