Private space. I used to share one room with my siblings. It was alright as a child, but I don’t want to go back. And I know that many families around the world have very little space for two, three or four generations living under a roof.
Chocolate.
Proper chocolate, not the shit that Cadbury turn out since it was bought by the cheese people.
No wonder they lost their royal warrant. That’s the first thing that Charlie has done since the Prince’s Trust that has really impressed me.
That’s super interesting, I actually like him a bit now because of that
Hot showers and a bidet.
We just finished a big holiday trip, 2 weeks visiting both sides of the family. Stayed with one family and then the other. After that…yeah…seriously considering getting everyone bidets next year for Christmas…
We recently got a bidet ourselves. There are portable ones. Basically a water bottle with a pump and sprayer on it.
Yeah, but there’s something a lot more gross about spraying yourself with a bottle than just turning a knob and letting the plumbing do it.
Maybe it is because I have a hand held sprayer that it does not bother me. But either way it is still better than stuffing your hand in there with a wad of paper.
Travel bidet
Toilet paper.
(I’d argue that’s more a necessity but) Bidet plus a a toilet rag covered in the stains from your previous toilet rag adventures?
I genuinely think I’d go insane if I wasn’t able to buy Brie or Blue cheese. I don’t need it every day of course, but any less than once every two months would be unspeakable
I have a bit of a compulsion to scan the grocery store for marked down fancy cheeses and bakery stuff. I’ve tried some pretty awesome stuff I never would have gotten otherwise.
Electricity
Air conditioning. Near the coast in Texas it’s more or less a lifesaver.
Caffeine
I’d be broken for a little while but tbh I think I’d be better off in the long run
I would normally say this too, but it’s surprisingly easy to get off caffeine. I’ve gone weeks without it, to usually slip up and start using it out of habit… but I don’t think I would miss it if caffeine suddenly just vanished from this world
healthcare
that picture exactly
Biggest one would be AC, followed by cheap electricity, and internet. Maybe frequent sex too. To quote that recent Mengzi post 食色性也
Partner says filtered water. My more luxury item may be homemade seltzer water
- Air conditioning
- Chocolate
- Coffee
All 3 are things that are reasonably likely to have troublesome accessibility in my lifetime.
I think AC will be the most reliable if home solar takes off. The other two though…
It’s still prohibitively expensive to buy AC units in the first place though. Vast majority of homes do not have AC pre-installed.
AC units are really not expensive as long as you install them yourself
I can hear to say coffee, but AC is at the top. I live in a tropical country.
Chocolate is nice, and I love it but I could drop it.
We moved to a new apartment - and a big rent increase from 5 years of inflation-pinned rent to now c$4/sqft/mo - just for A/C . Would do it again.
oh
a/c
yep that’s the one
Cheese in general. Chocolate as well. Clean water is a necessity, but I guess hot water on demand? While I like eating beef and chicken I probably wouldn’t be that sad overall if it went away.
Hot water on demand. Coming in from the cold and getting a hot shower. That is so wonderful.
Hot water!! I don’t remember how I survived childhood
We used to only have an outside toilet, covered in the fattest moths and spiders you’ve ever seen. We had a boiler that would cut out every fourth time it was used. I also don’t know how I survived childhood. It’s weird how what you get used to
Oh man, that’s a lot. At least our toilet was indoors, even if our plumbing was prone to breaking.
Literally, depending on where you draw a line between luxury and important but not mandatory for most people, it’s air conditioning. We have three people in this household that do very poorly once heat and humidity starts to climb, including myself. Plus, uncontrolled humidity in the south ruins things, so there’s an increase in costs associated with whatever decrease in power usage would save. For us, AC is right on the edge of being a necessity, as in a medical thing.
But in a more literal luxury that serves only pleasure or want, chocolate. No nutritional necessity, and it isn’t like we all can’t do without it. But gods damn, it would hurt. A nice piece of good quality dark chocolate is the ultimate mini reward for me. Do something incredibly painful and time consuming, that bit of chocolate is enough to turn it from something that I’m weeping in pain trying to finish into something I’m able to get through before I break down. That’s a luxury, but fuck me if it isn’t something I lean on heavily as a crutch. I really don’t know what I would use to coax myself through really bad days where I’m barely functional but still have to function.
Man, I year you. In tropical Mexico, whatever semi-dry goods we didn’t use up by the end of spring will be ruined and moldy within three days of summer starting. Must seeds won’t even germinate in like two months.
