You’ve either mentioned this general concept before or I’ve discussed it somewhere else. But I agree. I wouldn’t like to go without owning my own computer (although since I use it every day it falls within your once-a-week heuristic), but I could do it, given sufficient external hard drives, a DropBox account, and access to a library or university; this semester I’ve weaned myself off dragging my laptop to class every day, since being on the computer distracts me from class so “taking notes” is basically a scam, and for anything else I need during the day I can use one of the university-owned desktops set up in nearly-vast numbers in mostly-convenient locations around campus.

I don’t need to own a sewing machine if I can borrow one, or share it with some crafty neighbors/friends. I know students who have shared “family pack”-priced software within dorm rooms, apartments, or study groups. My girlfriend wants a KitchenAid and can’t afford one; but I’m sure if we started some kind of informal cooking collective with friends to share the cost and use of one combined with group homemade meals, we’d be able to do it easily. Some polyamorous families that share living space and incomes basically function as their own collective as well, especially if extended relationship networks are taken into account; if your live-in-lover’s live-out-boyfriend’s wife has that fancy drill you need to put together a porch, you don’t have to buy one yourself for one project.

@Rick, I appreciate your excitement. What is your area? You’re correct – collective use reduces consumption, so all these idiots who think that increasing consumption for consumption’s own sake will attack collective use as some kind of hippie socialist B.S. The fact is, we live in a world with many finite resources, so constantly increasing consumption of those resources is obviously self-destructive.

What about the people who produce these products? Maybe not so good for them(at least not directly).?!