Poll: living standard

[the_reda]

What do you think makes up a First World living standard? I am not talking about movie stars but what would you consider an average person to have access to/ own?

Feel free to add things in the comments, I only get 30 options per poll. There is no real order to the tickies.

By 'free' I mean paid for by taxes, not charity.

Feel free to repost/link

Comments

[dbaxdevilsfan]

Some expansions on my answers

[nesmith]

I would have said washer/dryer, but many people still go to laudromats without too much difficulty, so I figured bare minimum it's not mandatory--but it also depends where you live. I have some friends who live in a rural area and driving 30 minutes to the nearest laudromat isn't feasibl.e

[the_reda]

/I have some friends who live in a rural area and driving 30 minutes to the nearest laudromat isn't feasibl.e/

I am not sure that I would consider places like that to have FWLS.

Living in a country that is considered FW does not mean that all regions or people have access to a FWLS.

[dbaxdevilsfan]

I agree, and I don't agree. If you (not you personally) live in an area where (a) there are laundromats, and (b) you have transportation, then I agree. However, like where I live, the closest laundromat is a 20 minute drive. For someone with no car, or who lives where I do (out in the suburbs), with the lack of public transportation available, going to a laundromat isn't an option (unless they can bum a ride from someone).

[the_reda]

Having a car as a necessity and not a luxury is imho a step back

[shaysdays]

I personally (and this may be an EU thing) do not consider a dryer a necessity.

Alright, how do you dry large loads during the wintertime? Because once it warms up, we are all about the clothesline, but we'd have to run something across the living room to accommodate bedsheets/blankets/whenever my teenage daughter notices her hamper is stuffed three feet above the rim.

[the_reda]

Right now? In the bathroom.

My parents have a basement, so that is where the laundry goes. Most apartment blocks in Germany use the attic for communal drying. If not people put it in the living room or the bedroom on one of those standing racks.

[the_reda]

http://home.schottelius.org/~nico/photos/bilder_gossau_2006_11_24/07_wohnzimmer_waeschestaender.jpeg

This is what most people will do.

[shaysdays]

Even for bedsheets? Because we usually wash all the bedsheets at once, because they all use the same setting and detergent. Do they dry on those racks?

(I am asking because I don't like depending on the dryer, not OMG CRAZY EU, just to be clear, I'm honestly baffled because I've tried drying bedsheets on the 'indoors' clothesline and it never worked well because I had to fold them.)

[the_reda]

Yep, bedsheets too. Never had any issues with getting them dry, but you'd need to 'turn them over' after say half a day.

Right now I do have a glassed in balcony that we use in summer, but nothing will dry there right now. Not at -25F out. The bathroom does work quite well, since it is the warmest room in the apartment and meant for doing this. They all have special poles across the room that can support the weight of wet clothes.