Air conditioning: luxury or necessity?

[TheNerd]

I live in Houston, Texas. It was 105 last Friday. What do you think?

[Jen]

Air conditioning is a luxury by all standards...yes people die without it some cases, but should poor people be provided with it at our cost...absolutely not!

[cmkeller]

Some form of coolness in hot weather is a necessity. However, a spritz of water or a fan are cheaper alternatives to owning an air conditioner. They might not be as effective in cooling one off, but I doubt anyone using these methods rather than air conditioning will die of heat stroke.

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Chaim Mattis Keller
ckeller@schicktech.com

"Sherlock Holmes once said that once you have eliminated the
impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be
the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.
The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it that the merely improbable lacks."
-- Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective

[Falcon]

Whether it's a luxury or a necessity depends on the person. I have severe asthma, and for me, A/C is a necessity. So much so that when mine goes out, I have to move into a hotel. Either that, or move into the hospital.

[phouka]

Before the advent of air conditioning, people built their homes in ways that fended off the stifling heat of summer.

I grew up in San Antonio. Nearly every summer we were hauling relatives to the Alamo. My impression is that the Daughters of the Republic of Texas would dance naked for nickels before they let anyone touch a stone on that building, so IIRC, there is no airconditioning, and doesn't need any.

The thick stone walls, high ceilings and other attributes keep it nice and cool even during blazing south Texas summers.

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"I'm surprised that you've never been told before, that you're lovely, that you're perfect, and that somebody wants you." - Semisonic, f.n.p

[Fretful Porpentine]

My first two years of college (in Virginia, and the school year started in mid-August) were totally un-air-conditioned, and it wasn't as bad as you might think. The initial adjustment was bad, but I'd get used to it after a few days. (Fans helped.) My roommate and I have AC now, but we don't turn it on NEARLY as high as most businesses do. I think AC is nice, but it's way overused, especially here in the South. (I guess people are trying to compensate for the miserable weather outdoors, but going from 100 degrees to 60 when you walk into a restaurant is no fun either ...)

[copy ed]

I read in a medical article -- sorry, forget source -- that it took about two weeks for human body to acclimatize to no A/C after having been used to it. The health risks are much higher during those two weeks. In other words, if you vacation in the tropics with no A/C for two weeks, you'll start to become comfortable about the same time you have to leave.

Air conditioning is a luxury by all standards
Obviously, you've never lived in Arizona in August. Here, and in other God-forsaken, hellish places (like Houston perhaps), AC is a NECESSITY.

Adam

[Persephone]

For me, AC is a luxury that became a necessity this summer. I'm quite pregnant, and due in October. This heat wave, with the ungodly humidity, was making my hands & feet swell so badly I almost couldn't function. Got a small window AC, and things have been much better. I do see it as more of a luxury (for me) than anything else, though. My grandparents used to live in the desert outside of Las Vegas--it was a necessity there.

[John Bredin]

Even though it is almost the 21st Century, and air conditioning has been around in one form or another since the 1930s, one still hears and reads people talking about air conditioning as if it is a luxury. Not just a luxury but a wasteful and coddling luxury that we would probably be better off without. And I haven't heard this view solely from older people who grew up without A/C, so it's not just a "when I was a child, we didn't have..." thing.

On the other hand, while the most common argument against air conditions is that "people didn't die before we had air conditioning," how about the various deaths (hundreds a few years ago here in Chicago!) that are at least partly attributable to "heat waves"? Without the statistics, I'm just surmising, but I would guess that heat deaths occurred in large numbers in pre-A/C heat waves but were not news because they were considered unavoidable "facts of life" or were chalked up to "old age." (As if old age is ipso facto a cause of death!)

So my view is:
1) Something that people die without sure sounds like me to be a necessity.
2) People dying from diabetes before insulin or infections before penicillin (sp?) were also considered unavoidable facts of life.

Of course air conditioning is not a necessity in the absolute sense of food, water, and shelter. But, at least to me, it seems to be a necessity to the same degree that indoor plumbing, heating, and electricity are necessities.

So what do you think?

[Lucky]

You people are soft, soft, soft! At the risk of offending nearly everyone, I must say that American's seem to have lost the ability to distinguish necessity from luxury. The vast majority of the population of the entire planet lives without many things we Americans consider necessities. Talk to me when you don't have medicine, adequate food or housing.

A/C. Sheesh!

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"I think it would be a great idea" Mohandas Ghandi's answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization

[Keeves]

Many people don't like the saying "It's not the heat - it's the humidity!", but the fact is that it's often true. A hot dry day is less uncomfortable than the same temperature on a humid day.

This demonstrates a problem with the whole OP question, because air conditioners serve two functions: they both cool the air and also dry it out. I bet that if someone would invent a dehumidifier that works as efficiently as an air conditioner does, they would sell quite well.

[John Bredin]

Umm, Lucky, I *did* address this in my original posting. I stated that air conditioning is not a biological necessity. Of course, people all over the world live without sinks, toilets, electric lights, or radiators.

However, we're talking about Americans, or the First World to be correct. In the First World, indoor plumbing, electricity, and heating (in cold climates) ARE considered *relative* necessities, and not just by people who are "soft" or foppish. If a person lives in a building with no plumbing, or no electricity, or no heating, they are considered EXTREMELY poor (throughout the First World, not just in the USA). Heck, a landlord who rented apartments in a building with non-existent or inoperative plumbing, heating, or lighting would be in clear violation of the law in almost any city in the First World.

My question is whether air conditioning fits into that category, not whether human life is possible without it.

[gene]

I am one of those cheap skates who never had air conditioning in a car-until this summer. In summers past, I could usually drive in comfort by keeping the windows down..but this summer was a killer! In July (I live near Boston) we had days on end in the high 90's, with 100% humidity. I can talke the heat, but high humidity kills me.
Anyway, I broke down a got a car with A/C! Best move I ever made! A side benefit-you can avoid the noise with the windows closed.
I would say A/C, in a car, is a Necessity!

Air conditioning is a luxury by all standards...yes people die without it some cases, but should poor people be provided with it at our cost...absolutely not!
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Jen, just for the record: it is my sincere wish that someday God comes along and bitch-slaps your smug, self-satisfied, bourgeois honky ass. Perhaps with a debilitating illness which your medical insurer will not cover and that drives you into hopeless poverty. Or a business downturn that leaves you & yours living out of your car. I've been following your postings across the various boards for only about a week, and I can say with absolute certainty that they never reflect ANYTHING but the most damnable self-centeredness and mean-spiritedness. Did John's OP say anything about providing A/C for the poor? NO. But you can't let an opportunity for showing your ass go by, can you? And I'll just bet you think of yourself as a pretty good Christian, too, hah? You got a real come-uppance due you, woman.

P.S. And by the way, these are the opinions of a middle-aged white male.

[Mr.Zambezi]

Well, DIF, the government is alloting money for AC for poor folks. I don't thing Jen was too far out of line.

And if she was disabled and incapable of earning a living, that would be very different than being healthy and choosing not to work. Why is she automatically labled a self-centered bitch just because she believes in personal responsibiliy and is not a socialist?

That said, I haven't had air condiditoning in my house for 8 years. It gets a little bit uncomfortable, but it is not that bad. I do use it in my car because of bad asthma.

To my knowledge the government is not offering to pay for my AC despite my disability.

[Lucky]

John;

Didn't mean to get you all in an uproar. My point was that considering A/C even a "relative necessity" (perceived necessity, perhaps?) cracks me up and, IMHO, speaks volumes about the American mindset. And I do mean American. I haven't yet run across this type of thinking in Europeans.

Please understand I am not trying to berate you for asking the question. The whole thing just struck me as absolutely hysterical.

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"I think it would be a great idea" Mohandas Ghandi's answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization

[pricciar]

Lucky,
no offense, but where do you live?
I don't think air conditioning is a necessity for most of the country, but in the desert areas like Arizona or Nevada it becomes one.
Now, Europeans might not have similar complaints, but do they have tempatures that get up to the 120s on a regular basis?

pat

[MrKnowItAll]

Put me down for "luxury". (Except in those cases where a person's health is dependent on one.)

Living in Arizona, New Mexico, or in the middle of the Sahara Desert are not excuses, unless you are being forced to live there. Otherwise, you can always leave. ("If you can't stand the heat...") The human race survived for millenia without AC, and we still can. Just not as comfortably.

luxury -- 3. a: something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary. b: an indulgence in something that provides pleasure, satisfaction, or ease. (emphasis mine)

OTOH...
necessity -- 2. b: physical or moral compulsion.

Looking at this and the definition of "necessary" seems to leave loopholes for something being a necessity if it involves something that you are used to having. Still, the connotation is that something must be absolutely required.

[pricciar]

Well, if we are sticking to strict dictionary definitions, running water is a luxury, electricity is a luxury...

Neither of these are an absoloute necessity.
But, I think that in areas where the conditions are sufficiently hot air conditioning becomes as vital as these two things. Especially for older folks, which the OP mentioned.

Now, I count myself as a lucky one who lives in a place where I haven't needed air condtioning since I moved here.

pat

[Lucky]

Priccar;

You asked where I live. Chicago. Granted, not as hot as Vegas, but we get our days. I do, however, spend a good deal of time in the Southern region of Nepal (Dhangadhi, specifically) where it is often well over 100 Farenheit for months. There is no A/C there. Hell, most of the time there isn't even electricity. Whenever I first arrive, I curse the bloody heat and wish I were dead. But it doesn't take much time without A/C to realize you don't need it and to acclimate yourself. Don't get me wrong--it's never comfy, but people aren't dropping like flies either.

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"I think it would be a great idea" Mohandas Ghandi's answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization

[pricciar]

Lucky,

I don't think it is hysterical to think that Americans living in hot climates consider A/C a necessity to life anymore than I think its hysterical that Americans consider electricity a necessity. Would people be able to survive without these things? Yes. So, for many people its a luxury. But, the original post mentioned older people, every year older people die during heat waves, because they didn't have enough A/C. It seems to me that A/C was a necessity to them, that they didn't have.

So, I guess I am saying that for most people, A/C is a luxury, and they could do without. But, there are those who need it to live in the climate that they are in.

As far as Nepal goes, you said yourself, they often don't have electricity. So, would you agree that electricity is as much of a necessity as A/C? And that someone saying that electricity is a necessity would be just as hysterical?

I don't know, I guess I was just put off by the statement that the notion of A/C as a necessity as being hysterical.

pat

[mr john]

OK so we are all agreed, air conditioning is the main reason imperialistic soft america is going to hell in a handbasket and is a communist plot pepetuated by the liberal wellfare state. And any thing beyond bread and water is a luxury.That Boston is awful hot , (we just had a cold wave,temp only got up to 99 yestd'y. humidity 50%)100% humidity is rain and that Nepal gits WAY hot. but if you're lucky you can get used to it. Oh Dang I most didn't remember, the Alamo is a cool place to take your yankee in laws. Yall oughta cool down some.

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"Pardon me while I have a strange interlude."-Marx

[Satan]

When I lived in NYC I didn't have AC. I never had a car with AC until recently. I survived... I still only use the AC in the car when stuck in traffic or to cool off a hot-from-standing car before I get to speeds that a window will do. That was a sticking point with my ex-wife...

No, it's not a necessity for someone like me. I also know of senior citizens who have died because they didn't have it, but I still don't think it is a necessity.

I have AC all over now, and I like it, but would and have lived without it.

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Brian O'Neill
CMC International Records
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[Markxxx]

We need to consider a few things. First of all places like Miami and Phoenix and Houston ONLY became big after A/C was standard (in 1940 Phoenix didn't even have 100,000 now it is over a million people). So yes A/C has become needed more so as they don't acclimate to it.

When I first moved to FL it was unbearable, a year later no A/C didn't bother me at all.

I too have bad asthma, but I don't have A/C. Can't afford it. I found I could control my asthma quite well w/o A/C.

I think most things we have from TV o internet are not really needed. But it sure is nice to have.

Satan, you're saying Hell is now air conditioned? Well, THAT settles it . . .

[barton]

When I lived in Tucson while attending college, I lived in both places with AC and evaporative-cooler (the legendary swamp-cooler) apartments. The latter only works when there's enough water in the air, which is rare in Tucson, save the monsoon season.

While welcome, AC can be a bitch with the electric bill. I'd rather turn on a mess of cheap fans (which I do in my current Boston apartment) and suffer a little. They're noisy, but they give the place character.

Neither of the two cars I've owned have had AC, and the last one was brand new, bought in the middle of a blazing Boston summer. I just roll the windows down and drive fast instead of paying an extra grand.

Definitely not a necessity, unless you're old and the heat could kill you. I'm 24. It's a luxury for me.

[MrKnowItAll]

Okay, John. After re-reading your OP, I'll have to say I'm in agreement with you.

Of course air conditioning is not a necessity in the absolute sense of food, water, and shelter. But, at least to me, it seems to be a necessity to the same degree that indoor plumbing, heating, and electricity are necessities.

It's a necessity to the same degree as plumbing, yada, yada... But that seems to be a pretty watered-down version of "necessity". "Degrees of necessity" creates gray areas that overlap with "luxury" (or perhaps a better word would be "convenience").

[Alphagene]

You asked where I live. Chicago....
Don't get me wrong--it's never comfy, but people aren't dropping like flies either.

Ummm... isn't Chicago notorious for having high death tolls during heat waves? Wasn't this past one pretty bad?

I guess I have to change my stance on this matter. Or, at least explain myself better. When the A/C breaks in old folk homes here in the Phoenix area, they have to evacuate, or the residents will suffer heat stroke, and die.

I don't have A/C in my car. (Actually, it's broken right now) Whenever I'm driving some where, day, or night, it's unbearably hot. But I live. So for ME, it's not a necessity. But in this day and age, for some people, it IS a necessity.

Adam

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"Life is hard...but God is good"

[BoHunk]

If a/c is a luxury, then I guess artifical heat in the winter is a luxury also, since we could all just bundle up and get close.
Using the spartan definitions described above, just about EVERYTHING is a luxury, since if you get acclimated, you can survive on very little food, with very little shelter, you won't like it, but it won't kill you right away. These luxurys are the reason that the life expectancy has grown so much in the last 100 years. They may not be needed the same amount by all, but at sometime or another they are a life saver. So on an individual basis, you must decide for yourself, in general, if we want to maintain our collective life expectancy at a high level, it is a definite necessity

[Lucky]

Alphagene: Nice C&P on my quote that you posted---making it look as though I was talking about Chicago when in reality I was talking about Dhangadhi, Nepal. So much for ethics.

Nevertheless, people aren't dropping like flies in Chicago either. Yes, every summer a few people die of heat stroke. In the winter, some people freeze to death. What's your point?

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"I think it would be a great idea" Mohandas Ghandi's answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization

[Lucky]

BoHunk;

I may be wrong on this, but as far as I know, disease prevention/treatment and improved nutrition are the reasons for increased life expectancies. I have never heard that heating or A/C cointributed significantly in this regard. Do you have a cite for this?

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"I think it would be a great idea" Mohandas Ghandi's answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization

[ellis555]

excuse me for my late entry.
i'm going to back up Lucky here. i've spent extensive time in Haiti. it gets damn hot. no A/C in the remote clinic where i'm located. as Lucky said, you get used to it. to stave off the question, i live in VT. yes, it does get hot in the summer, just as it gets cold in the winter. however, i do not own, nor do i see a need to own, an A/C. don't live in the desert and complain about the heat!

ellis

[Jen]

and one more thing...DIF....I brought up air conditioners for the poor because I believe that poor people should be provided with NECESSITIES, food, shelter,clothing, medical treatment, and yes air conditioning if it is medically necessary. But, for everyone else, air conditioning is a luxury in the true sense of the word.

[Lucky]

Thanks for the back up, ellis555.

As I seem to have pissed a few people off here, I'll try to explain better why this seems so funny to me and maybe you will understand.

Like Ellis555, I have spent time in impoverished nations. In the context of that experience, to even consider the question of A/C being a necessity is very funny. The same sort of thing happens in reverse with regard to not understanding culture and hilarity resulting.

For example, I happened to be in Nepal when the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal broke. In Nepal, the media still has respect for the leaders, much in the way that the media here refrained from reporting taudry details of presidents past. Several people asked me at the time, "If your presendent receives such harsh critcizm for this type of behaviour, what happens to a commoner?" They figured we must deal out the death penatly to common folks who commit adultery if we would be so bold as to talk about our leader's indiscretions on T.V. Knowing that the complete opposite is true here, and knowing that there is no way you could explain that that would make sense to them, it's funny, no?

Another example: I am 32 and don't have any children. Despite discussions as to why I have chose not to, they all firmly believe that I cannot have children and am lying about it because, in their world view, every married woman (I'm divorced now) has children. Now, if you were in my shoes, trying to explain that many people in America do not have children until they are in their 30's, and all these Nepali woman are staring back at you with a look of pity and complete disbelief, would you not find that funny?

I know these aren't exact correlations to the A/C discussion, but I can't set up an example which requires an understanding of Nepali culture because anyone without that knowledge wouldn't get it. I'm sorry if some of you think I am being cold-hearted about laughing off the A/C as necessity bit. But from my world view, it really is funny.

Do I think it would be great if we could provide A/C to all those in need of it (elderly, etc)? Well, I will say a conditional 'yes'. If all the greater needs of humanity were met, I'd have no problem handing out free air conditioners. But, IMHO, there are more important considerations at the moment. You could feed a lot of starving children for the cost of one air conditioner.

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"I think it would be a great idea" Mohandas Ghandi's answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization

[AuraSeer]

I wonder why this hasn't been moved to the Pit yet? You people are getting really upset over a pretty simple question, and a subjective one at that.

The issue is one of quality of life. Some people are of the opinion that A/C is necessary to maintain a normal quality of life in the industrialized world. Other people are of the opinion that if we would just shut off the A/C, we'd get used to living without it and would be able to function just fine in the heat.

Up to this point, nobody has presented any hard facts one way or the other, so you're all just expressing your opinions. Try and remember this, and let's keep the gratuitous flaming to a minimum.


mr john:
100% humidity is fog, not rain. Rainfall is dependent on the conditions at cloud level, which can be very different from those near the ground.

Lucky:
You're correct that Europeans in general have a different view on A/C than Americans. That's because they have a different climate than we do.
I recall that German schoolkids are given days off school when the temperature gets too high-- above about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Growing up on Long Island, I had to walk to school on hotter days than that. Does this mean that Europeans are, to use your word, "soft"?

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I'm not a warlock. I'm a witch with a Y chromosome.

[AuraSeer]

Another item of note.

So far this summer, Chicago's toll of directly heat-related deaths is something more than 40. (This according to a recent news report.) Many of the victims were elderly persons who did have air conditioning in their homes, but refused to turn it on because they feared the expense. If that's not a tragedy, I don't know what is.

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I'm not a warlock. I'm a witch with a Y chromosome.

[Jen]

Lucky writes
"As I seem to have pissed a few people off here"

Lucky...you have only been mildly admonished, where I on the other hand, have been sentenced to a death causing affliction,poverty and living in my car with no health insurance....after all I am a self centered meanie that needs a bitch-slapping from God....consider yourself truly "Lucky".

[Lucky]

Auraseer;
Yes, Europeans are soft, but not as soft as Americans. As you rightly pointed out, this is a discussion about opinions. My opinion is that those of us in the First World have become so used to extreme comfort that the slightest bit of discomfort is perceived as horrific. I am not suggesting that no-one suffers in the heat. Of course they do. All over the world. But the whole idea of discussing A/C as a necessity is one of those converstaions that makes me laugh and say, "only in America".
Look, I love my country, but we are definately spoiled here. Do I want to trade that in for a life of poverty? Absolutely not. I'm not saying that we should take away everyone's A/C and make them suffer like the rest of the world. I'm just trying to explain that if one takes a world view and then asks this question, it's absurd.

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"I think it would be a great idea" Mohandas Ghandi's answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization

[Lucky]

One last thought:
I guess my view on this also differs and seems cold to some because I probably define trajedy differently than some of you. Anyone dying from the heat is sad. It seems especially sad in an American context because so many people are able to easily avoid the heat with A/C.
But I have also had the horrible experience of seeing cases where people have died because the simple anti-biotic they needed was not available in their village and the supply truck didn't make it in on time. I have seen people suffer and die from illnesses that we routinely treat here with great success. I have seen children die of dehydration after long bouts of diarheal disease because their parents didn't know enough to bring them to the clinic. And all of this on top of never having adequate food, poor living conditions, unsanitary water supplies, and no A/C.
In either case, people are dying, and that is sad. But here, one has some options. For example, hang out at the mall that day or go to a relative's house. Here in Chicago, the city sets up emergency cooling centers where people can go inside an A/C building and cool off. The mayor comes on T.V and encourages everyone to check in on the elderly. Now sure, some people slip through the cracks, but there are a hell of a lot less cracks to slip through here than there are elsewhere. IMHO, A/C is a pretty trivial concern (yes, I know, not to the person whose dying of heat stroke, but in general).

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"I think it would be a great idea" Mohandas Ghandi's answer when asked what he thought of Western civilization

[pricciar]

Lucky,
I am sorry, I didn't mean to jump on your case.

I think I misunderstood your point. I agree that compared to a person who doesn't have the medicine needed to live someone who is hot shows that A/C is a luxury.

But comparing the lack of medicine to gas or electricity, shows both of them to be luxuries as well. I think the OP conceded that these weren't real neccesities, but in an American culture that values gas and electric as neccesities, in some areas A/C might be considered as much a necessity as they are.

I think we agree, Lucky, I just think we are viewing the original question on different terms.

pat

[Jen]

Hey Dif....what exactly is a pretty good christian? You, I bet, huh?...I doubt seriously that God would "bitch-slap" anyone.

And yes, in my community people without means were being handed air conditioners free of charge...I had to pay for the one I have...no one gave it to me and if I did not have one, would the A/C police be banging on my door to give me one?....NO.

and just for the record, DIF, I am surrounded by poor people, all of whom, I have helped out at one time or another. Like the time the kid across the street had a 104 fever and her parents could not afford to buy her childrens Tylenol....it was my self centered ass that drove out to the drug store at 1am to see that she got some medicine.

I have driven people without cars to the doctor, I have baby-sat my neighbors kids so that she could go to work when her sitter called out sick so she would not be evicted from her home, I have loaned money, given clothes, etc, etc...

You, Dif, do not know jack-shit about me..other than my views on the black miss american pageant, if that is indeed what you are referring to. And if I should burn in hell for those views, then so be it.