Things We Can’t Live Without: The List Has Grown in the Past Decade

[DainBramaged]

Luxury or Necessity?

As Americans navigate increasingly crowded lives, the number of things they say they can't live without has multiplied in the past decade, according to a new Pew Research Center survey that asks whether a broad array of everyday consumer products are luxuries or necessities.

Some of these goods, such as home computers, are relatively recent information era innovations that have been rapidly transformed in the public's eyes from luxury toward necessity.

But other items - such as microwave ovens, dishwashers, air conditioning for the home and car, and clothes dryers - have also made substantial leaps in the past decade even though they've been fixtures on the consumer landscape for far longer.

For example, the percentage of American adults who describe microwave ovens as a necessity rather than a luxury has more than doubled in the past decade, to 68%. Home air conditioning is now considered a necessity by seven-in-ten adults, up from half (51%) in 1996. And more than eight-in-ten (83%) now think of a clothes dryer as a necessity, up from six-in-ten (62%) who said the same a decade ago in a survey conducted by the Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University.

The Pew survey asked the "Luxury or Necessity?" question about 14 different consumer products designed to help make everyday life more productive, more convenient, more comfortable, more efficient or more entertaining. It was conducted by telephone from October 18 through November 9, 2006 among a randomly-selected nationally-representative sample of 2,000 adults.

Survey respondents placed the 14 items on a very broad range along the "necessity" scale -- with a high of 91% describing a car as a necessity and a low of 3% saying the same about an iPod.



http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/323/luxury-or-necessity


Great long article, please read the rest at the link

[dkf]

1. Each of those things requires energy to run.

Makes you wonder what we'd do if we can't satisfy our need for energy.

[DainBramaged]

2. Die

Without energy, we'd be reduced to a minuscule population in a generation. We can't go back, no matter how much some people want to. And I ain't debating that point, I have to go to work, now.

[dkf]

4. After my power blackout for 21 hours, I can tell you life without

energy is really really boring. As my co-worker said, the only thing to do in a blackout is sleep.

[madokie]

6. Or get naked with ones significant other

but you knew that, huh :-)

[dkf]

7. The SO was out of town on a trip.

That didn't help the boredom factor one bit.

[DainBramaged]

14. Battery powered devices maybe?

:hug:

[dkf]

16. haha...

Luckily I was exhausted enough to really appreciate the sleep.

[The2ndWheel]

26. From Separation to Boredom

http://www.ascentofhumanity.com/chapter1-4.php

The ascent of humanity has come at a price, and I am not speaking here merely of the destruction of the ecological basis of human civilization. Our separation-fueled ascent exacts its toll not just on the losers, the victims of our wars, industry, and ecocide, but on the winners as well. It is the highest of all possible prices: it comes out of our very being. For all we have built on the outside, we have diminished our souls.

When we separate ourselves from nature as we have done with technology, when we replace interdependency with "security" and trust with control, we separate ourselves as well from part of ourselves. Nature, internal and external, is not a gratuitous though practically necessary other, but an inseparable part of ourselves. To attempt its separation creates a wound no less severe than to rip off an arm or a leg. Indeed, more severe. Under the delusion of the discrete and separate self, we see our relationships as extrinsic to who we are on the deepest level; we see relationships as associations of discrete individuals. But in fact, our relationships—with other people and all life—define who we are, and by impoverishing these relationships we diminish ourselves. We are our relationships.

"Interdependency", which implies a conditional relationship, is far too weak a word for this non-separation of self and other. My claim is much stronger: that the self is not absolute or discrete but contingent, relationally-defined, and blurrily demarcated. There is no self except in relationship to the other. The economic man, the rational actor, the Cartesian "I am" is a delusion that cuts us off from most of what we are, leaving us lonely and small.

Stephen Buhner calls this cleavage the "interior wound" of separation. Because it is woven into our very self-definition, it is inescapable except through temporary distraction, during which it festers inside, awaiting the opportunity to burst into consciousness. The wound of separation expresses itself in many guises, ranging from petty but persistent dissatisfactions that, when resolved, quickly morph into other, equally petty dissatisfactions in an endless treadmill of discontent, to the devastating phthisis of hopelessness and despair that quite literally consumes the spirit.

[SoCalDem]

3. I could easily do without many of those

[dkf]

5. I'd put car air conditioning above home air conditioning.

Whoever can't live without their ipod will probably have awful hearing by the time they get old. Oh the irony.

[we can do it]

8. My List Is Pretty Short

car, microwave, computer, hi-speed internet, clothes washer (I've been hanging mine to dry the past 2 years to save energy, we have a nice dryer), cell phone is iffy- i use it for work......

[Atman]

9. The MICROWAVE? You've got to be kidding me!

The microwave is a significant culprit in the fattening up of America. Seventy-two "flavors" of heavily saturated-fat and chemical-laden popcorn, where you used to make it on the stove in nothing but a tablespoon of vegetable oil. A relatively healthy snack was transformed into another fat-bag. And who the hell eat a "Hot Pocket" if you actually had to wait 45 minutes for it to cook in the conventional oven? An entire genre a new, unhealthy Crap Food has evolved around the micro. For the longest time (until we sent him to school and gave him a cram-course in basic food prep) our son couldn't cook anything, but he could press 1:30 on the micro key pad. We'd go away for a long weekend and leave him with a fridge/freezer full of burgers, steaks, fish and all the accompaniments. We'd come home and anything nuke-able would be gone, and he'd be whining "You guys didn't leave any food in the house."

The microwave is the ultimate convenience. I'd gladly give mine up just to get the counter space back. It's nice to have to warm up the coffee or re-heat some left-overs...but even that can be done on the stove top.

.

[DainBramaged]

10. My microwave is my BEST friend, and I ain't "fattened" up by any stretch of the imagination

that friendly beep, the growing warmth of the light, that caressing buzz.......

[Atman]

12. I doubt you're representative of the entire population

At least in terms of being "fattened up," I guess. But now, getting beyond you and your one, individual case -- do you not think there is any truth to what I wrote? Do you know anyone who lives almost entirely on microwave food (which is, for the most part, sodium-heavy, chemical-laden, process-heavy franken-food)? And I didn't even touch on all the additional packaging waste generated by millions of pizzas and crap triple-wrapped in cardboard and plastic, with weird metallic disks thrown inside for "browning."

Now, setting aside that you're not fat...look around you, look at America. Do you really think there is no truth to what I wrote?

.

[DainBramaged]

13. I use the microwave for warming and defrosting I don't cook with it at all

and I doubt people eat microwave food to the extent you claim. Snacks, sweets, fast food, fried foods, that's what's contributing to the fattening up of America. Most microwaves today can barely fit a large size Stouffer's macaroni and cheese let alone a meal for the overweight among us.

[fasttense]

19. The microwave is a boon to cooking fresh and frozen vegetables.

I cook almost all my veggies in the microwave. Except for delicate leaf items like turnips and mustard greens, and collards, the microwave prevents having to boil my veggies. You don't lose all that nutrition through the boiling water in a microwave.

I guess a steamer would work as well but you still lose a fair amount of nutritional value through the steam water. And also, you can't fit whole squash in a steamer like acorn or spaghetti squash.

Three cheers for the microwave and fresh veggies.

[Atman]

21. You "doubt" it. Go look at the frozen food aisle. Someone's buying this shit.

Most grocery stores have entire aisles devoted to Totino's Pizza Poppers and Hot Pockets and a brazillion different TV dinners. I don't know if I even said "most Americans," but step outside your own lifestyle. Imagine yourself living in the city, and you do most of you "shopping" at the corner store -- where frozen crap is the closest thing to real food you can find. That's reality for millions of Americans

You can buy a micro for $29 bucks. Or you can take a bus across town to the real grocery to buy a big ol' chicken that'll feed you for a week, but you have to cook it for hours, then clean it up, deal with the mess, store the leftovers properly... Or you can throw a box of Hot Pockets in the micro and be fed quickly. That same corner store might have a couple of dozen nearly-expired eggs for $3, but then you need to do something with them...buy bread (cha-ching), milk (cha-ching), something to make a meal out of your $3 eggs. Or you can buy a box of Jimmy Dean sausage and eggs wrapped in pancakes and a weeks' worth of sodium for the same money. And they're engineered to taste better than anything you could ever make at home.

YOU might not think this is reality, but it is, for millions of Americans. Beyond that, you make a lot of generalities about stuff like "most microwaves." There are no "most microwaves." We have a tiny one because we only use it for reheating and heating up veggies. But a whole lot of modern kitchens (I can generalize, too!) have over-the-range micros that will cook an entire roast if you're crazy enough to do so.

"Snacks, sweets, fast food, fried foods, that's what's contributing to the fattening up of America." Correct. And many of the major restaurants chains have brands of their worst offenders available at the supermarket that you can take home and microwave. Microwave french fries, microwave sliders, microwave hot pockets, microwave bloomin' onions, microwave cakes and pies, microwave all manner of "snacks, sweets, fast food and fried food." Just because you're intelligent enough to eat right, don't assume that most of America is there with you. Most of America is lazy and stupid.

.

[DainBramaged]

28. Know what, this is America, if people want to be fat and happy in this fucked up world

let 'em be, it's not YOUR job to be the fat police.


Happy New year.

[Atman]

31. Wow, you spun that around like a Bush communications manager!

Now I'm the "fat police?" Are you fucking serious? I responded that the convenience of microwave crap was partly responsible for American's obesity problem (which apparently you deny exists). You morph that into "fat police."

I don't know why I bothered...I've dealt with you before. Same ol' same ol'.

.

[DainBramaged]

34. Oh well, such is life. If you don't like the answer, you curse at me?

Nice. So, not only are you pissed off at the overweight problem in this country (which is ONLY your problem for YOU) you curse at me because i won't agree with you.


Nice. Go preach to someone else. And thanks for trashing the thread. Always a bummer interloper.

[Gwendolyn]

32. Hadn't thought about it at all, but you make some excellent observations.

Most offices have at least one microwave, so people tend to eat a lot of that crap you mentioned there too, even if they take the time to cook and eat well at home.

Our microwave died a couple of months ago and in the week or so it took to decide what to replace it with, and schlep out to go get it, we discovered we didn't need it. Haven't had one in over four months and looks like it won't be replaced. Food just tastes better when it's done the old fashioned way, strangely enough, so do reheated items as well.

[DainBramaged]

38. Whose business it it to be the fat police? isn't it the person's own responsibility?

People eat microwave crap at work because one, it's cheaper than going out, and two, most people I know can't take a real lunch and if they are white collar, eat at their desks, and since there are NO STOVES at work where I work, I guess cooking fresh is out of the question. Especially with a half-hour lunch.

[Gwendolyn]

39. I wasn't making any judgement calls about peoples' weight at all.

I used the micro wave at work too, till I went freelance. Of course, time and convenience is of the essence. I meant my comment more from a health and environmental standpoint. A lot of prepared micro wave food is terribly over processed and unhealthy, and the packaging required (plastic containers/boxes etc...) is incredible.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[mainegreen]

17. No shit. I know of one thing that I would use the microwave for: corn on the cob.

*Everything* else works better in the oven or on the stove.

We have had no microwave for six years and never miss it. No 'toaster oven' either.

[DainBramaged]

45. Definition of the "fat police" chastising people over their diets

when it's NONE of the poster's business. DU, where ignorance and being "skinnier than thou" means being an asshole.

[SoCalDem]

46. ours is above the stove, and is a coffee-reheater

and a place to store bread..

(we have a cat who likes to chew through the plastic wrappers on bread:grr:..)

[Fireweed247]

47. I agree with you

and who the hell has tested exactly what happens to the food(or the immediate area) when it is nuked? Someone tried to give me a microwave once and just couldn't believe I didn't want one.

All of the microwave 'dinners' aren't exactly healthy and they aren't cheap either. I make my own 'hot pockets' and I know exactly what goes in them. And popcorn, it's so easy and FUN to make...people are missing out on good old fashioned popcorn popping. Microwave popcorn has so many chemicals in it, it makes the factory workers sick. Yum!

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Guess the list makes me essentially a Luddite.

Microwave == I cook, I use the double-boiler or the pressure cooker.

Dryer == I dry my damp clothes on racks.

Air Condition == I drink lots of cold water and use a fan at night to circulate the air.

Dishwasher == My two hands with drying rack.

Cell Phone == Nope.

Computer == Dial Up. I can wait.

[Odin2005]

15. high spped internet IS a neccessity if one wants to find unbiased, non-MSM news.

An older generation's luxury is a younger generation's necessity. That's just how things go.

[nuxvomica]

18. What about refrigerators?

I was at one of those community dinners on Thanksgiving where you see a lot of people who are suffering hard times. The organization also offered delivery of the dinners for folks who couldn't make it to the hall or just didn't want to come for whatever reason. One guy showed up and told me that the two dinners he ordered hadn't arrived yet. I told him he could just pick up his dinners here and take them home. He wanted to make sure they weren't delivering at the same time he was picking up because he didn't want to end up with extra dinners. I told him "That's what refigerators are for," and he responded that he had no refigerator. He drove there in a car, though. So I guess refigerators are now luxuries. :shrug:

[Historic NY]

20. Car air conditioning, pretty hard to find a car w/o these days....

I live fine w/o a cell phone, ipod & flat screen TV. With a computer I probably could cut out cable tv all together. I just put in a new microwave hood mounted after my old one went almost 20yrs to the day of the old one. I actually use ceiling fans more than the a/c in the house unless its oppressively hot. I've knock my electrical use down some 17% this past year.

[Heidi]

22. I don't have a car, air conditioning, a microwave, dishwasher, or dryer, but

I do have an iPhone (rarely used, mostly a work-related convenience), high-speed internet, an iPod and a 1260-watt espresso machine. I used to think I couldn't live without a car, air conditioning, microwave, dishwasher, dryer, but I now know that I can live pretty comfortably without just about any of them, though work would be more difficult without high-speed internet.

ETA: No satellite or cable TV, either.

[Bucky]

23. I notice hugs are not on this list

also fluffy kittehs

[DainBramaged]

24. Good one, Happy New Year

[Heidi]

25. Here, have a luxury, Bucky!

:hug:

[DainBramaged]

27. Here's another to wash that one down with

[Heidi]

30. Buon anno, DB!

:hug:

[Mojorabbit]

29. I have lived without

everything on the list in the past and could again. I lived on Key West as young woman for example. Walked everywhere, hand wash or laundromat for clothes, no tv and computers were not common then. I fished, partied, played cards with friends, and the only thing that was uncomfortable was when there was no breeze and it was horribly hot.

AC is the only thing that I would not want to do without again at my age in Florida. we are looking into a solar room ac and I already have a solar freezer. My dream is to be off grid someday.

[MindPilot]

33. Those are all fundamental to living in a modern world

I just took a look around my house at all the TRULY unnecessary stuff.

Do I really need three lava lamps? Two cameras? A TV on the patio? A laptop in the garage just so I can stream AAR while running a shop full of power tools? A combination flat panel TV/computer hanging on the wall in my bar? A bar? An electric pencil sharpener? An outside refrigerator just so I don't have to walk inside for another beer? A machine that does nothing but make grilled cheese sandwiches and another that cooks frozen pizza?

Yeah, I'm one guilty mofo.

[DainBramaged]

35. Are you happy? That's what matters. Happy and healthy.

all the rest is just fluff, unless of course you are overweight and then watch out, the fat police are on the prowl on DU today. :rofl:

[MindPilot]

41. I'm proud to say I can occupy an airline seat with a couple inches to spare

Just wait until I reveal that my completely unnecessary energy-wasting superfluous patio refrigerator bought from Circuit City and hauled to my overpriced sub-prime mortgage financed southern California home in an SUV is full of COORS LIGHT!

And yeah I'm as happy and healthy as one could expect after the past eight years. Thanks for asking!

[chrisa]

36. None of those are even close...

To a necessity. Americans forgot how good we have it. When you haven't eaten in 10 days, and your street is now just a bunch of smoldering rubble, then we can talk.

[DainBramaged]

37. How true, but, can we create a "I'm bummed" thread elsewhere?

We KNOW how fucked up the world is, and thank you for reminding us that people are dying from everything every second of every day. But, if you want to be moribund, there are hundreds of forums to start a "the world sucks" thread in.

Jesus, Happy New year.

[Naturyl]

42. I do without seven of them. (n/t)

[azmouse]

48. A/C is as necessary in many areas as heat is in others.

And sadly many HOAs won't allow people to hang laundry outside to dry.