American Necessities: Food, Clothing ... a Cell Phone?

Dec. 20, 2006 — -- The United States has the highest standard of living in the world. But for such a prosperous nation, Americans sure are a needy bunch when it comes to the products they say they can't live without.

At least that's what the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan "fact tank," found in a recent survey that asked people to consider whether 14 popular consumer products were luxuries or necessities in their daily lives.

The survey also compared results to a similar survey taken 10 years ago, offering a glimpse into Americans' sense of entitlement to a few products that are extreme luxuries in many parts of the world.

The top two items -- the car and the washing machine -- remained virtually unchanged in surveys conducted over the last 30 years, with nine out of 10 consumers identifying them as necessities.

No product suffered a substantial drop since the last survey was conducted in 1996. But others, like the personal computer, the microwave oven and, most notably, the cell phone, made enormous gains.

"The items that jumped up the necessity scale are the everyday consumer products designed to make life more comfortable and entertaining," said Paul Taylor, executive vice president at the Pew Center.

Eric J. Johnson, a business professor at Columbia University, agreed.

"It's not like a Caribbean vacation," he said. "They're all goods you use all the time, and they're useful on a daily basis."

Take the personal computer, for instance. Seventy-three percent of adults own one, according to the survey, and more than half the respondents said they couldn't do without it, nearly double the number in 1996.

Increased digital communication and the rise of the Internet during the last decade account for much of this change. And reliance on computers is likely to grow even more in coming years as Americans go online for personal and business needs.

"We see the trend continuing as Internet information, searching, shopping, e-mail and other digital activities become more a part of mainstream Americans' lives," said Jonathan Kaye, director of consumer notebooks product marketing at Hewlett-Packard, in an e-mail interview.

To take advantage of those capabilities, more computer users have switched to broadband Internet, which 29 percent now consider a necessity. Broadband was such a nonfactor 10 years ago that the 1996 survey didn't even ask about it.

"[With the Internet], there's a tremendous opportunity to find out what's going on," said 60-year-old Richard Pokory, who owns his own vitamin business. "It's like FM radio was during the 60s. … It was fantastic, so different."

The Emergence of Cell Phones

Like the computer, cell phones have experienced an enormous rise in popularity. But in 1996, they were little more than a niche item, so obscure that, like high-speed Web access, they weren't even listed in the earlier survey.

Now, of course, cell phones are ubiquitous on any American street. For many, they're not just telephones but personal organizers, digital music players and video game consoles. They've become so common that 49 percent of Pew respondents said they were necessities.

"What was a cell phone 10 years ago is now a multidimensional lifestyle tool," said Joe Farren at CTIA: the Wireless Association, an industry trade group. "It's how you use the Web, send e-mail and listen to music. It's your address book and your calendar."

The Microwave Makes a Comeback

Not all the big gainers are new-technology items.

"What is surprising is that some of the older consumer products have moved up so rapidly," Taylor said.

These include driers (+21 percent), dishwashers (+22 percent) and air conditioners (+19 percent), which 70 percent of respondents now view as essential.

Yes, the ability to cool the climate in our homes, a mere rumor in many of the poorest, hottest locations in the world, is no less than a life-or-death necessity for at least one American.

"The air conditioner is a medical necessity," said 28-year-old Josh Casaubon, a soap opera actor who lives in New York. "There's global warming now. You die without it."

But the big winner was the microwave oven, which jumped a whopping 36 percent. Sixty-eight percent of 2006 respondents said they couldn't live without a microwave.

But what's driving these gains? Are they really necessities or just habits that people become overly accustomed to?

"People get used to things," said Columbia's Johnson, "and giving them up really hurts. You can't imagine living without them."

And it turns out, perhaps not shockingly, that the more people have, the more they believe they need.

Pity the Rich -- They Have More 'Necessities'

While nearly half of those who make more than $100,000 a year listed 10 or more items as essentials, only 13 percent of adults with household incomes below $50,000 fell into that category.

"Increases in income don't make people happy," Johnson said. "They just need more."

The survey also included two items -- the flat-screen TV and the iPod -- that could rightfully be deemed luxuries, with only 5 percent and 3 percent of people, respectively, declaring them essential.

But Pew's Taylor said even that could change.

"Now it's hard to see the iPod as a necessity," he said. "But the same might have been said of the cell phone 10 years ago."