Rethinking Luxury

First off, we're pleased to announce the launch of another, sister blog: the Silver Money Report. This blog will deal exclusively with topics pertaining to silver, notably in its investment and monetary functions. We have other blogs in the works, which will be rolled out for public consumption in the future.

For today's post, we would like to look at the idea of 'luxury.' We're sure that, to most, 'luxury' is probably brings to mind the lifestyle of a movie star or pop singer, rather than the middle-class living standard of yesteryear. Luxuries typically embody a large amount of wealth, whether financial or otherwise. In the past, one could demonstrate one's wealth by, say, gold-trimmed plates and solid silver silverware. The American rich of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries bought automobiles to show off their wealth.

Westerners in general (and Americans in particular) have forgotten just how much of their lifestyle is actually a luxury. Eating meat is a luxury; indoor plumbing is a luxury; a private room is a luxury; more than twenty square feet of living space per person is a luxury. We're sure these things sound more like necessities to you, Reader, but rest assured they definitely are not. Rather, these are the 'victory' of the 20th and 21st Centuries: making the luxuries of the 19th Century the necessities to the masses.

We're not saying that these things will necessarily once again become luxuries, but we're willing to bet the 2007 Depression will push the average closer to historical norms than Americans (and Westerners) are willing to accept all at once. Average living space in the West may not become ten square feet per person again, but it will probably be closer to 200 than the 1,000 Americans enjoy presently. Indoor plumbing probably won't go away, but the average person almost certainly won't have their own, private bathroom.

Perhaps the biggest luxury that Americans especially are unaware of is being able to live anywhere. Many areas of the United States are not viable economically, either from lack of productive capacity, remoteness, or outright uninhabitability. As energy becomes scarcer, and the 2007 Depression squeezes the economy even more, the 'live where I want to' mentality of Americans will likely end.

We could go on, but we instead will suffice with saying that knowledge of the living standards of the 19th Century is something one might want to be more familiar with. Not to forget, there are 4 billion people in the world who do not have even the quality of living as the average in the 19th Century. They are perfectly willing to fight tooth and nail, and work as hard as humanly possible, to get their indoor plumbing. They will work harder for this than you ever will, or ever have.