These 15 Once Normal Things Are Considered Absolute Luxuries Today

With rising inflation costs, price-gouging, single-family home ownership dwindling, and the overwhelming financial stress Americans feel, many things that once were affordable have become luxuries. Here are a handful of them.

1. Furniture Made From Wood

Do you remember when furniture was made from wood and lasted forever? They were solid and durable. When chips or scratches in the finish occur, you could put in a little work to repair it better than new.

That’s not the case with most furniture today. I bought a living room set less than four years ago that I sorely regret. And I emphasize the word sorely, as the cushion has warned down to the cheap plywood underneath. 

2. Long-Lasting Appliances

Speaking of quality furniture, there was a time when planned obsolescence (designing products to break quickly or become obsolete in the short to mid-term) destroyed home appliances. I have a food processor passed down from the ’70s, one of my favorite kitchen gadgets. But good luck finding anything that will last that long being sold today.

Planned obsolescence is unethical and wasteful and causes a need for you to continue to spend more money replacing things that are fully capable of being built to last.

3. Belongings That Do Not Require a Subscription

Once upon a time, people owned things. It was a glorious day, with much fewer monthly subscriptions. From entertainment media to computer software, there is a subscription for everything nowadays. I don’t know how many movies I added to my Amazon movie library before realizing I didn’t own them.

According to reports, you’re only “Buying a limited license for on-demand viewing over an indefinite period of time. Purchased content may become unavailable due to provider license restrictions or other reasons.”

4. Farmer’s Markets

Cheap farmer’s market produce and baked goods are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Now, everything is marked as organic or artisan, and costs double.

5. Buying a Home

Owning equity rather than renting is only feasible for a few Americans. Between investors buying affordable homes and flipping them for no longer affordable prices to the government purchasing single-family homes, home ownership is becoming a much more brutal reality. 

6. Single-Income Families

I’m old enough to remember surviving on my father’s single-family income, but that’s never been part of my American reality. It’s almost a mandated two-income minimum to survive in this economy, and it’s still not always enough to purchase a home, as previously stated.

7. Handwritten Letters

One may not think of handwritten letters as a luxury, but they likely aren’t from the generation of writing and receiving them. There’s a sincere delight in my heart when I receive a card in the mail, mainly from the older people in my life. I’ll be sad to see that go one day.

8. Family Vacations

Family vacations are something that many people grew up enjoying annually. However, everything is so expensive now that experience is less prominent than before. Between airfare, hotel, rental cars, dining, and other typical travel expenses, there’s no room left for the experiences of wherever you’ve ventured. Theme parks like Disney and Universal Studios have become outrageous

9. A Company-Funded Pension Plan in the Private Sector

Nowadays, companies only offer 401k or similar retirement plans. Fewer private sector companies offer pensions outside education, government, and railroads.

10. Affordable Health Insurance

Affordable health insurance is a luxury most Americans can’t afford. I’m uncertain of the exact semantics, but I went online to see how much it would cost to insure my family, and it wouldn’t allow me to see any quotes until after giving them my information. It was a massive mistake.

A year later, I still receive solicitation phone calls and text messages asking to send me quotes on “affordable” plans. Why are they trying so hard to insure me? I worked in sales, and it screams someone is making money in a scammy way.

11. Being a Stay-at-Home Mom

Believe it or not, plenty of women desire the opportunity to be stay-at-home mothers to their babies. That’s not to take away from career-driven moms or women who have no desire to be them. It’s simply stating a fact; sadly, it’s a luxury that most Americans can no longer afford.

12. Having Children

A growing number of people are deciding not to have children because of the financial impossibility of adequately supporting them. Some people go as far as calling it a privilege in today’s economy.

13. Groceries

Grocery prices have soared to astronomical prices, and many Americans have stopped buying their favorite go-to products. Between price-gouging and shrinkflation, consumer wallets are being heavily hit at the grocery store.

14. Privacy

From being reachable at any time, thanks to cell phones, to a camera filming you on every corner, privacy is a thing of the past. We constantly sign away our privacy rights anytime we download an app. It’s frightening when you honestly think about how we line up to bug our homes with Alexas and smart devices.

15. Entertainment Without Ads

Advertisements were once reserved for print media and television. However, you can’t get 20 seconds into a YouTube video today without being hit with an ad. You visit any website and are lucky if the load time is manageable from being bogged down with advertisements.

All streaming services have or are soon to have ads and require you to pay extra to remove them. It’s obnoxious. Scrolling, listening, or viewing things without ads is definitely a luxury today.