Working in a Moneyless World

"Even today, people joke that Twin Oaks is a home for Type-A hippies, the sort of nonconformists who chafe at too much idleness. These ideas about work and structure are codified in the Twin Oaks labor credit system, which has its origins in the ideas of B.F. Skinner, the Harvard social scientist who championed radical behaviorism. Skinner’s 1948 utopian novel, Walden Two, depicted a society so hyperfunctional that each person worked no more than four hours a day, all goods and services were free, and everyone had plenty of time for friendly tennis matches. In a rational, egalitarian labor system, Skinner theorized, all work would be considered equal, and no one would have to do anything she didn’t feel like doing. Removing the distorting influence of money from a labor system would result in work for work’s sake, harmonious social relations, and a comfortable surplus of necessary goods."