Photo: Anna Tarazevich, SHVETS production / Shutterstock, Katya Havoc & Aliaksandr Litviniuk via CanvaPro & Reddit
Most people's listed 'luxuries' are actually basic needs.
By Alexandra Blogier — Written on Jun 10, 2023
In every era, there are positive and negative aspects to life. For every change that’s instituted as time passes, there are both gains and losses.
A user on the Reddit subreddit r/AskReddit, where people can ask questions to the online community, posed an interesting exercise to followers, asking them to list things that were normal 20 to 30 years ago that are now considered luxuries.
People shared the many ‘luxuries’ that were ‘normal’ in the 90s, and most of them had to do with the current high cost of living.
One person shared that in the 90s, “paying no more than 30% of your income in rent” was normal; now, it’s almost unheard of. Others echoed that sentiment, stating, “single-income families buying a home” and “buying a home in general.”
“A lot of double-income families struggle to own a home,” noted one user. Someone else explained that they’re “Double-Income-No-Kids [and] still can't afford a house.”
The high price of housing in our current time is coupled with the extremely high cost of having children. Another person mentioned that people used to pay “$1.15 average per gallon gas prices in the 90s,” showing just how much times have changed, and how expensive modern daily life really is.
Photo: Jill Evans / Pexels
Others explained that the quality of certain items has decreased since the 90s and early 2000s.
"New furniture made out of real wood," commented one Reddit user as something that was normal in the past. "Nothing angers me more than paying luxury prices for fiberboard-framed garbage," someone else responded.
“Good quality fabric in clothing,” another person said. “I have clothes from the 90s (and 80s from my mother) that still hold up today. These days, I'm lucky if my shirt isn't saggy and misshapen within a year.”
Photo: Lyudmila2509 / Shutterstock
Another person gave the example of “household products that didn't break within the first few years of use.”
They offered anecdotal experience, saying, “My grandma had the same fridge from 1993 for a good while before deciding to switch to a newer, bigger one 2 years ago; yes, it broke within those 2 years; my mom's wedding cookware is still going strong 25 years later, but whenever she needs new pans they start flaking Teflon into the food within a few months.”
Healthcare was another item on the list that seems like a luxury when it’s really a basic human right. “Going to the doctor” was normal, explained one person. “I’m 28 but even when I was a kid you could go to the doctor when you were sick or hurt. Now I won’t go to the doctor unless I’m dead.”
“Not being expected to be reachable 24/7,” commented someone else. Technology is far more advanced now than it was 30 years ago, but the societal expectations of always being accessible puts pressure on people. While that’s not the only difference in how we experience the world, it’s certainly a marked one.
Most people’s complaints about modern-day life seem to revolve around the lack of accessibility to getting their basic needs fulfilled, such as taking care of their health and having a stable place to live. And though the 90s were only a few decades ago, such drastic changes have left most people bewildered.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.