It's no wonder the US uses so much energy when you look at this list that compares "luxury versus necessity". Paris is rarely hot enough to warrant an air conditioner but I easily live without a/c, including while in hot locations. For us, we prefer a fan over a/c any day of the week though while driving, I can see the advantages over the weak fans that only blow hot air. (Even so, we don't have a/c in the car we borrow in the summer.) We used to have a clothes dryer but that broke down a few years ago and we never bothered to replace it. Same story with the TV (and cable TV) which we never replaced.
The high speed internet or computer is a must have, for us at least. So what do you think is necessary versus habit?
Some of these goods, such as home computers, are relatively recent information era innovations that have been rapidly transformed in the public's eyes from luxury toward necessity.
But other items - such as microwave ovens, dishwashers, air conditioning for the home and car, and clothes dryers - have also made substantial leaps in the past decade even though they've been fixtures on the consumer landscape for far longer.
For example, the percentage of American adults who describe microwave ovens as a necessity rather than a luxury has more than doubled in the past decade, to 68%. Home air conditioning is now considered a necessity by seven-in-ten adults, up from half (51%) in 1996. And more than eight-in-ten (83%) now think of a clothes dryer as a necessity, up from six-in-ten (62%) who said the same a decade ago in a survey conducted by the Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University.
