When does a luxury become a necessity?

Many things that were considered luxuries have become necessities. Cherise has a good list, and I'm sure there are more. However, I also think that we can go back if we had to.

It would be a tough adjustment but not impossible. We have just become so dependent on these things that the thought of living without them is scary. To tell you the truth, when I watched that short lived tv show about the cop that was transported back to the 1970's (I can't remember the name of it but Lisa Bonet was in it as his girlfriend), the depictions of the people and life in the 1970s was kind of scary to me.

I was just a kid then, and made it through just fine. But the thought of no computer, internet, cell phones, etc. seems almost barbaric. And that was only 40ish years ago.

My mom is fond of saying that she thought she was born in the wrong century and that she thought she would be happier in another. I try to remind her of all the problems inherent in that. Status of women, level of technology, etc etc made life very difficult for many people.

We tend to see the life of the rich as the life we would want to have back then but there were very few rich people. More than likely, we would all be serfs or slaves or something. So I am digressing as usual.

We consider many luxuries a necessity because we really don't know how to live any differently. How many of us can go and find drinkable water that doesn't come from a faucet. Maybe some.

How many people can get a variety of food that doesn't come from a grocery store. Again some, but many people no longer have the land to develop or cultivate crops and animals. We could go back but it would be tough, and it would take a few generations to stop lamenting the loss.

A luxury becomes a necessity, when society deems it impossible to function without it. This of course is relevant to where you may live or work. We choose what becomes a necessity.

Utilities are a necessity because most people do not have the means or knowledge to heat and create light for themselves. However this wasn't always the case. Cell phones have become a necessity, but years ago we have things call answering machines.

And of course there is the internet, where most everything is available, if not exclusively available online. Before this, there were "encyclopedias" and the US Mail. We will continue to see luxuries turn into necessities as society evolves.

Cars if you live in the city, cell phones, TV's, stainless steel appliances, whirlpool bathtubs and the list goes on. Maybe not such a necessity as becoming commonplace. What if they stopped cell towers and put pay phones back in.

Do you really need to stand in the supermarket and call home to shop. Maybe not so much a luxury as an affordable convience.

I like what Cherise said about luxuries becoming necessities when people begin expecting them. On an individual level, I think luxuries become necessities when you start integrating them into your life and relying on them. I don't care if someone thinks my phone is a luxury -- my life would become extremely difficult without it (at least until I had the chance to adapt again).

My communication would be interrupted, I'd miss appointments, and other important things would be completely skipped.

A luxury becomes a necessity when everyone starts expecting us to have it. The cell phone is close to being an expected item. The following items are not really necessities, but I have indicated the approximate years when they started being items that everyone just expected us to have: Running Water 1910 google.com/search" rel="nofollow">google.com/search?q=running+water+history&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS284&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=wJFvS9L0E4z8sQP5jIGyDQ&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CGsQ5wIwCg Flushing Toilet 1910 plumbingworld.com/historytoilet.html Electricity 1930 google.com/search" rel="nofollow">google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS284&tbo=p&tbs=tl%3A1&q=electricity+in+homes+timeline+history&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi= Telephone 1930 privateline.com/TelephoneHistory2A/Teleh... Automobile 1930 ausbcomp.com/~bbott/cars/carhist.htm.

I don't think a luxury ever becomes a necessity. I think we can believe things are necessary, but when push comes to shove necessities are only the things we cannot live without..like food and shelter.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.