It’s difficult, but organising one’s community will go some way to fix that.
For example:
If two households take it in turns to cook for each other, they more or less halve the time it takes and cuts the cost. Three households, thirds. Four households, quarters. Depending on the numbers of people, different skills are needed to keep the savings in tact, but communities can work that out.
Spending time reading with kids builds literacy, creates bonds, and gives struggling parents help with their child’s education and potentially some time ‘off’ for chores that are difficult with kids, like shopping. If organised right, it could also reduce loneliness, including for the elderly.
Litter picking keeps outdoor areas looking clean, reduces pests, and may make people more likely to want to use public space together.
Community walking can increase fitness, build friendship, improve health, and deter petty crime if conducted at the right time of day.
Toasting and buttering a loaf of bread costs little but could really help poor children. Behaviour and learning will likely improve as kids can concentrate better, leading to less community time spent on ‘remedying’ poor behaviour/not meeting expected targets.
As queermunist says, community needs to be built before it can be organised. I’ll add that building community is organising it. They go hand in hand but we’re practically starting from scratch thanks to the successful efforts of the bourgeoisie since circa 1970/whenever neoliberalism started.
Boring answer none of us actually want to do: organize your community
Community is dead. Before we can even get organized I think we have to rebuild community, itself.
I don’t think that none of us want to do it. It is more that many of us don’t have the time or resources to do it.
It’s difficult, but organising one’s community will go some way to fix that.
For example:
As queermunist says, community needs to be built before it can be organised. I’ll add that building community is organising it. They go hand in hand but we’re practically starting from scratch thanks to the successful efforts of the bourgeoisie since circa 1970/whenever neoliberalism started.