Air conditioning: luxury or necessity?

Great Debates
21

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.

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

22

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

23

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.

“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx

24

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.

Brian O’Neill
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25

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.

26

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

27

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.

28

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

29

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

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”).

30

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

“Life is hard…but God is good”

31

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

32

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?

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

33

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?

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

34

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.

35

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

36

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.

37

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.

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

38

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”?

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

39

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.

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

40

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”.