We Need a New Economic System

Opinion – By Savannah Bloom

May 4, 2025
Communism gets one more chance, this time led by six roommates with a chore wheel and a crystal grid.

Look, I know what you’re thinking: “But Savannah, hasn’t Communism already been tried… like, a bunch of times?”

And yes, I hear you. The Cold War. Bread lines. That one movie where everything’s grey and sad and there’s no Netflix. I get it.

But that wasn’t real Communism. That was, like… Communism with bad 

vibes. And terrible branding.

What we’re doing is different. What we’re doing is intentional.

It started during a house meeting when Tessa (she’s a Leo rising, which is important) said she didn’t think rent should exist. 

We all kind of paused, and then someone—I think it was Clay, but he was on a THC tincture so memory’s foggy—said, “Wait… what if no one owned anything?”

In that moment, we woke up.

We realized the problem isn’t just capitalism. The problem is that Communism has only ever been tried by, like, really bad people. Dictators. Men. People with zero Pinterest boards.

We call our model “Commune 2.0,” and it’s based on collective trust, curated aesthetics, and a shared hydroponic herb garden. We’re not doing authoritarianism. We’re doing radical inclusivity—like, no landlords and no emotional landlords either.

We don’t “own” anything. We “vibe-steward” shared resources. That’s not a toothbrush—it’s the people’s toothbrush.

Each of us contributes in our own way. Clay makes group breakfast (oats, mostly), Tessa leads mediation circles when Mercury is in retrograde, and I handle visioning and Instagram branding. We rotate all chores unless there’s an astrological reason someone’s not aligned with kitchen energy. It’s a pretty fair system, as long as you’re spiritually evolved enough to understand it.

There’s no money in our house. We use energy tokens, which are polished river stones infused with intention. Whoever contributes the most emotional labor earns the most tokens. We keep them in a repurposed mason jar that used to hold pickled beets. Symbolic, obviously.

We also abolished leadership roles. No hierarchies here. Instead, we have a rotating “vibe guardian” who holds the talking stick during house meetings and keeps the collective aligned with its higher purpose. It’s like a chairman, but with more sage and less genocide.

We even wrote a manifesto. It’s currently on our fridge in dry erase marker, but we’re hoping to email it to the United Nations soon. It begins:

“All beings deserve fair energy, affirming food, and aesthetic control over shared interior spaces.”

Some people say Communism leads to oppression. But I say: maybe that’s because nobody tried it with almond milk and good lighting.

Capitalism, on the other hand, literally causes sadness. My cousin Maddie works at a Chase bank and she cries during her lunch breaks. She says it’s because of her divorce, but honestly? We know it’s capitalism.

In our system, no one has to compete. There is no hustle. Only harmony. Just yesterday, two of my housemates took a three-hour nap on a futon because they were “economically exhausted.” That’s valid.

When we shop, we don’t “buy” groceries. We “redistribute abundance.” That’s what I told the cashier at Trader Joe’s. He didn’t understand. He was like, “You can’t just take this,” but I felt like I could.

We’re starting local, but we’re thinking globally. Next semester we want to expand to the apartment next door, assuming we can manifest it. Then maybe the co-op down the street. Then, eventually, the entire student housing complex. Then… who knows?

To the haters who say Communism doesn’t work: you’re thinking of old Communism.

We’re doing cozy Communism.

We’re doing zodiac-affirming, chore-balanced, oat-milk Communism.

This time, there’s Wi-Fi.

This time, it’s real.

And this time… it’s us.

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