# What luxuries in your life have become necessities? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 12, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663 "2013-09-12T14:53:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663/61 "2013-10-01T23:11:27Z")
My iPad and my designer dog. …don’t hurt me, I didn’t design him, I rescued him. But he’s a friggin’ _Yorkipoo_, so somebody did and that should count, right? ---
**Author:** ![agnesnitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d78d45/32.png) [@agnesnitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agnesnitt)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663/62 "2013-10-02T06:44:36Z")
Okay, totally thought an iphone would be a luxury, but the first time I went on travel with one, it made my life so much easier. I’m able to track the Supershuttle, check on my flights and gates, make/change reservations on the fly. And since telephone directories have disappeared from hotel rooms, you need a smartphone or a computer to look up phone numbers. Gold earrings. I stopped wearing jewelry decades ago, until I picked up some cheap hoops earlier this year and got a lot of positive feed back. Now I’ve got a pair of nice gold hoops. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663/63 "2013-10-02T12:57:20Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > Of all the little luxuries I’d prefer to never do without (electricity, hot water, toilet, automobile, etc.) I’d have to go with having a warm place to sleep. :rolleyes: Third World luxuries. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663/64 "2013-10-02T13:39:00Z")
Years ago I went without hot water for a month, and it was worse than I initially anticipated. I was going to be moving and notified my utilities ahead of time. Through a mix up the gas company shut me off a month early. I figured I’d just eat pizza (gas stove) and take cold showers rather than get my gas service restored. The pizza worked fine, but ice-cold showers were painful. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663/65 "2013-10-02T14:42:13Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > :rolleyes: Third World luxuries. First world luxuries as well. Lots of people in America are missing many or even all of the luxuries I listed. And they _are_ luxuries, in any reasonable definition of the word. ---
**Author:** ![sentrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@sentrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sentrix)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663/66 "2013-10-02T14:43:19Z")
pizza hut delivery. ---
**Author:** ![agnesnitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d78d45/32.png) [@agnesnitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agnesnitt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663/67 "2013-10-03T21:33:45Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Years ago I went without hot water for a month, and it was worse than I initially anticipated. I was going to be moving and notified my utilities ahead of time. Through a mix up the gas company shut me off a month early. I figured I’d just eat pizza (gas stove) and take cold showers rather than get my gas service restored. The pizza worked fine, but ice-cold showers were painful. I had no hot water for 6 weeks (replacing the only bathroom in an old house). I took showers every day at work. If it’s really painful and you really want hot showers, get a one month membership in a gym. ---
**Author:** ![agnesnitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d78d45/32.png) [@agnesnitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agnesnitt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663/68 "2013-10-03T21:38:21Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > First world luxuries as well. Lots of people in America are missing many or even all of the luxuries I listed. And they _are_ luxuries, in any reasonable definition of the word. When I moved to my present job, within 40 miles of a major American city, one of the elementary teachers told me she had students who had never seen flush toilets until they came to school. Recently I met another employee who told me her “next door” neighbors (one farm over) had no electricity and used oil lamps and battery powered lamps. I assume they had no electricity to run a water pump either, so they must have had outhouses too. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663/69 "2013-10-03T21:51:25Z")
Indeed. The OP could have explicitly excluded mundane (for the United States) luxuries, and asked for people to specifically stick with high luxuries, but did not. There’s no justification for rolling eyes at people for mentioning some of the mundane luxuries that would be very had to do without. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-luxuries-in-your-life-have-become-necessities/668663.md?page=3)