I Contributed for Years, Then Missed a Few Times and Was Removed — That Is Unfair

Complaints like this, sometimes even curses, come up often: "I've been contributing to KangAi Commune for a long time, I'm a long-standing member, I've been in for many years and I've earned credit with the Commune, and then I missed a few times and was removed. That's unfair!"

Emotionally, the Commune is grateful for members' long-standing recognition and support, but the Commune will not make a special exception simply because a member has been participating for a long time. Why is that?

The longer a person has been a member, the longer the mutual aid protection they have received at the Commune. Even though they did not perceive it during that time, they did have entitlements during it; a force was protecting them, so they have already received something. To put it more plainly: the contributions you paid in the past already paid for your past protection. If the Commune made an exception, it would mean that the protection cost for the period in which you took no part in cost-sharing was provided free of charge by the other members, and you received free protection during that time.

Think about it the other way: what if something for which the Commune provides aid had happened to you during that past period? Fortunately it did not, but that does not mean the intangible entitlement — the protection — did not exist.

And think about it from the opposite direction again (this is in fact the more important reason): if long-standing members could fulfil their obligations casually and indifferently, then once a very large proportion of members are long-standing members, would we still be able to raise the full amount for members who need aid?

So this is entirely fair. The individual members who accuse the Commune of being heartless and dishonest have no basis for doing so.

[Background] KangAi Commune stipulates that a member who fails to fulfil their obligations four times in a row is removed from that mutual aid commune (for accident-type communes, two times is enough for removal).