The Isle of Eigg | ARTE.tv Documentary 

Well, good luck on buying an island from a single owner, if you know what I mean 😇

Absolutely 💯

So? Do it anyway. If you find out it wasn’t the right thing, you simply reverse it. Life’s too short not to follow your dreams. Greetings from a German grandmother

Because he had the wife to bounce his ideas off and clarify what and how he'd be able to do it. The system isn't working. They didn't even have the money and resources in those days, just a final sense of freedom and common ownership. We need to get back pre-feudal.

Because we are too many on this earth, and also half they story is not being told

Greed

100% This is completely unaffordable for a regular person, especially without a job or by farming a small garden. Something similar can be achieved when you work in a country with good salaries, and then relocate to a cheap country, with cheap land and relatively cheap builders and services. Then there is a chance to create a little paradise, but nothing near like a community from the video. Or you must have a house from your parents, like in the video, for a season of 15k per month from tourists. And at the same time get a 300k from crowdfunding. I would never get a hold of such free money to start my own business 😂

Tax payers? I don't think the people who chipped in didn't see it as taxation but enabling a community to be free from Lords and Landladies. "The Trust manages and stewards the island's development for current and future residents. After years of instability, neglect and lack of secure tenure, the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust was able to purchase the island on 12th June 1997, largely due to the generosity of around ten thousand members of the general public."

@@ZenioDovgj You lack the imagination for this to be viable because you weren't born on a tiny island that belonged to a careless owner.

@@sigiloXXXreally? I remember £10M - so I don´t think your maths stacks up. and who pays for the ferry to delivery the post and food? the postage stamps stuck on the envelope?

​@@alk6225Hi.... Totally valid questions.. The Buyout price was £1.5 million, a very large chunk of that from 1 anonymous donor. Since then there have been several major projects funded by UK government, Scottish government, EU, and many more. A new pier to match the new (then) ferry so the trip didn't involve ship to boat transfer at sea. The power grid construction and many expansions, though some of those expansions were paid for by mobile phone service providers. Eigg Electric frequently hosts visits from universities and other would be of grid communities. There is a new community hub just finished, as the population increases (~2 to 3 a year), the old facilities were very cramped. Also, it's not just residents that benefit from all this, the visitors (which often outnumber residents) also enjoy them. As for freight, CalMac charge standard commercial tariff, post is just the same but 3~5 days slower, and large freight costs £1,000 per sailing of a local landing craft that could carry ~4 x 7 tonne trucks (so you make sure its full!) Heating is local wood, shipped wood pellet, coal and kerosene, the latter 2 can only arrive via the landing craft, so there's a premium price for that. Cooking is mostly propane which costs ~20% more than mainland.. So, compare that to mainland life where electricity is supplied via tax payer funded national grid, sewerage, water, and gas infrastructure originally built by tax payer money.. Note we have to build our own water supply and sewerage management, there is no gas on tap.

In essence I would say so, these are people that form a community with common goals, no need for government interference, but I wonder if high technology could be capable of being produced here.

but the island council control the islands population, the services, everything... so can't be...

No, it couldn't be further away from libertarian. It's actually basic communism.

No, they didn't. You either did not listening, or you didn't understand.

@@walther2492 sure £10M out of a few hundred pockets.....would have been cheaper to run off duracell batteries

arte is a French-German public service channel dedicated to culture. They produce content for both countries and of course everyone at arte speak French, German and English. So its logical that they speak to their interview partners in their native language if native speakers of French and German are involved, because their audience consists mostly of French and German viewers. The rest will be dubbed in French, German, or in this case English.