The folks at the Pew Research Center did a survey to find out how these challenging economic times are affecting consumer attitudes toward household appliances. Not surprisingly, the percentage of Americans who viewed their appliances as necessities rather than luxuries declined in almost every category (and the categories in which the numbers rose all represented relatively new technologies). It makes for interesting reading, particularly if you're of the opinion that we could probably all get by with a lot less shit in our living rooms.
In any event, the report issues a stark call to action: We need to hunt down the four percent of respondents who view an iPod as a necessity and beat them to death with those iPods. It make take a while, particularly if they have the newer models, which are super-light, but I think we'll be much better off as a society when we're done. It'd be a nice bonus if these are all the same people who cannot live without a flatscreen TV, but the iPod thing alone is a fine start.
I take my ponies to the bargain vet now.
How do clothes dryers have the biggest decrease? I'm pretty sure I need the clothes to become wet in soap and subsequently dry irrespective of economic conditions.
Second biggest, rather. Microwaves are useless anyway, and give you cancer.
I hear some people have replaced them with two poles attached by a length of rope.
Yes, but how do you keep the wet clothing from falling off the rope?
If there were some kind of small, wooden device to prevent that, this idea might just work ...
New York would look wicked cool if they started stringing those upper floor pulley clotheslines across Park Avenue.
I dry my pants in the microwave.
I don't wet my pants.
I can't believe you haven't been bullied by eco-terrorists into washing your clothes in cold water and then line drying.
Well, if you live in Yurp, like I do, and the washing machines don't have hot water (many homes here, like mine, get their hot water from small gas or electric heaters, and so don't feed directly into the washing machine like they do in the states) well, yeah, you wash with cold water and line dry. And you know what? Your clothes turn out just fine. Jesus, unless you're coal miner, you don't get THAT dirty. And your clothes last a lot longer. I mean YEARS longer.
You've never been to Europe, or probably anywhere outside the US, have you?
We don't have five of those things! We are Prudent Citizens/poor.
That's cuz you're a country bumpkin now.
Is Guitar Hero an appliance?
Seriously. I'm surprised gaming console wasn't on there! If only to marvel at the ever-more creative ways that Balk would think up to kill the one and a quarter percent who would call that a necessity.
Also? I'd be interested in seeing the numbers for DVRs.
Car - I have people do that for me.
Clothes dryer - See above.
Home air conditioning - Not in every room.
TV set - Is that like a sweater set?
Home computer - Laptops don't just sit at home.
Cell phone - Is iPod.
Microwave - Haven't owned in four years. Do not miss.
High-speed internet - Must have.
Cable TV - About to be usurped by above.
Dishwasher - Inefficient and untrustworthy.
Flat-screen TV - Fits perfectly on 1950's Danish console, thank you.
iPod - Is Cell phone.
The actual survey question: "Do you pretty much think of this as a necessity or pretty much think of this as a luxury you could do without?"
Hey Pew Research Center: Do you pretty much think it's a good idea to hire any moron who comes along to write your survey questions, or do you pretty much not think about that very much?
Answer (cirle one):
Pretty much
Not much
Yeah. As part of my sociology degree in a college that wouldn't impress anybody, I tool a course in design of research tools, and this questionnaire is clunky at best.
You're right. The choices should have been:
Pretty much
Not so much
(That 'so' is crucial.)
Not graphed:
"Neck massager" +217%
I don't ALWAYS shit in the living room.
Social climber.Only rich people do that.
curiously enough, the question "which of these items have you attempted to fuck?" produces much the same graph.
I don't know - I wouldn't call an iPod a "necessity" by any means, but I would choose it over any of the following: car, clothes dryer, air conditioning, TV set, microwave, cable, dishwasher, flatscreen TV.
Okay, maybe not the car - those things are worth shitloads of money - but I've gotten along just fine on public transport for years. So not 'necessary', you know. And the others definitely aren't.
Top pick? High speed internet, for sure.
Nobody even asked about bongs? What kind of survey is this?
OMG do they have electric bongs now??