Luxury or Necessity? The Public Makes a U-Turn

Given how correlated these trends are, I am not sure what is changing is the desire for any particular item, but the actual interpretation of the word "necessity". I suspect what is happening is that when financial security is low, necessity is applied as a term close to its actual definition, whereas in times of financial plenty it starts wandering up the scale towards "want".<p>That said, I boggle at the clothes dryer rank.

Slightly off topic, but related none-the-less: something that has always bothered me about "necessities" is that 99% of US households have a TV [1] but at the same time, ~12% are in poverty. [2] How do "necessities" like this tie into poverty?<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_the_United_States" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_the_United_States</a> [2] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States</a>

The fact that 50% of people still believe things like a TV, Microwave, and central A/C are "necessities" means we have a very long way to go. I guess I can be happy it dropped from 60%.

I'm rather blown away that 49% of 18-29 year-olds consider a land line phone to be a necessity.<p>I think the last time I had a land line was a decade ago, when I was 17. And I live in the decidedly non-cutting-edge midwest. Even my parents haven't had a land line in years.

The average middle class citizen have access to luxuries unheard of even for kings and queen ages ago.<p>What is luxury very often become the masses' necessity through free maket process.

What about the internet? I don't have a TV but I wouldn't give up the internet because my work depends on it - but for others it would be a luxury.