The Concept of Luxury Keeps Changing With Passing Days. Find Out Which Things Will Become a Luxury in the Future.
There are a lot of things that are taken for granted.
We wake up and breathe fresh air. We splash our face with clean water. We scroll a little, not really concerned about online privacy, and we repeat that the next day. But soon, these will be luxuries, which only few can afford.
Welcome to Alux.com – the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. If you’re not subscribed yet, you’re missing out.
Not many people can afford the luxury of reading this long article, as it would take up a lot of time. Switch over to the video version of this article:
Without further ado, let’s move on to the article.
1
Privacy
Aluxers, you might not be bothered by the fact that your data is being stored, sliced and diced and sold to various people to target you depending on your emails sent via Gmail, your status updates on Facebook or even from the online news site you visited… it goes far deeper than just targeted advertising, according to Julia Angwin writing for an opinion column in the New York Times.
She adds, “It has also been used to charge people different prices based on their personal information. It has been used to provide different search results to different people based on their political interests.”
When enough people start worrying about the repercussions of the breach of privacy, it will cost an arm and a leg to remain private.
2
Spotting a Black Rhino
Worldwildlife.org gave some positive feedback, when they confirmed that the numbers are black rhino have been slowly increasing, thanks to massive and expensive conservation efforts. In 1995 there were 2,410 black rhinos, and today there are more than 5,000.
Namibia, South Africa and Kenya are where most of these rhinos live, and every effort is being made daily to protect the rhinos, mainly from poachers who are their main threat.
Sadly, we can’t say the same for the northern white rhino, of which there are only 2 left in the world.
And just for the record, rhino horn is not an aphrodisiac, it doesn’t cure cancer, it doesn’t stave off a hangover and it’s not the same as purchasing a luxury vehicle, as advertisers in several Asian countries will have you believe.
For more things on the record – be sure to subscribe to our channel!
3
Fresh Air
When bottled water came out, people thought it was a bit of joke, but it quickly caught on and now we consume them on the daily. Americans drink 70-million plastic bottles of water every day according to container-recycling.org.
It may be the same for fresh air because you can now purchase a bottle of it. It is literally a bottle filled with air, setting you back 80-pounds for a 580ml jar. It started with Moses Lam and Troy Paquette filling a Ziploc bag with fresh air and selling it on eBay. A bidding war started with their 2nd bag, and it sold for 99-pounds.
Long story short, they’re exporting to China, Vietnam, and India, and were in talks with Vietnam, Korea, Iran, Greece and Mexico.
So yes, fresh air, along with other things taken for granted, will become a luxury – but it goes further than that as you will see next.
4
Clear Skies
Depending on where you live, will determine what the air is like when you open your curtains. If you have a clear view, then you are exceptionally lucky. So many people are greeted with smog, pollution and a haze that offers no beautiful views.
Aluxers, so many cities are cloaked in smog on the daily. Air pollution, industrial smoke and motor vehicles are all part of the problem.
The country with the worst air pollution according to visualcapitalist.com is Nepal, followed by Qatar and Egypt. On the other hand, the country with the least air pollution is New Zealand, followed by Brunei and Finland.
5
Clean Drinking Water
The World Health Organization confirms that 1 out of 3 people do not have access to safe drinking water. An article released on their website in 2019 confirms that, “some 2.2 billion people around the world do not have safely managed drinking water services, 4.2 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation services, and 3 billion lack basic handwashing facilities.”
It’s a frightening thought that so many are denied a basic human right, so be grateful every time you turn your tap on and your water runs clean. Don’t waste it like other things taken for granted.
6
Topsoil
Aluxers, did you know that the world needs topsoil to grow 95% of its food?
So, what happens when we have no topsoil left? Scary thought isn’t it? And the problem is that our topsoil is disappearing at a rapid rate.
According to theguardian.com, due to conventional farming practises, “nearly half of the most productive soil has disappeared in the world in the last 150 years.”
You’re probably wondering why the h*ck are we were not told about this, and world.time.com hit the nail on the head when they said it’s, “probably because soil isn’t sexy.” It’s speculated that there are only about 60-years left of topsoil, and after that? Well, if something isn’t done to protect it, food production will decrease by a minimum of 30% and once again, the poorest countries will suffer the most.
7
Phosphorous
Aluxers, while we’re still on the farming thread, another luxury will more than likely be phosphorous. We need phosphorus to live, and we’re running out. Theconversation.com states, “Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for all forms of life. It is a key element in our DNA and all living organisms require daily phosphorus intake to produce energy. It cannot be replaced and there is no synthetic substitute: without phosphorus, there is no life.”
Phosphorous is one of 3 nutrients found in fertilizer – nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. It cannot be manufactured or destroyed.
It’s said that the usage of this element doesn’t have to run out, but global phosphorus resources are not properly protected, according to an in-depth paper by the Columbia Institute.
8
Owning a Property
In our video, 15 Things That Are Simultaneously Getting Worse & More Expensive, we looked into housing.
There we said, “buying a house is near impossible these days. Even on 2 salaries and parentals offering a helping hand, it’s a push.”
It’s getting more and more challenging for young people to get onto the property ladder, and even today, owning a property is a luxury.
9
Time
The late American educator, Stephen Covey once said, “Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent, and not enough time on what is important.”
And isn’t it true Aluxers, that we are envious of people that seem like they have all the time in the world… and you long for just 5 minutes.
And we’re always busy, and we’re expected to do and be so much… instead of just being.
Campaignlive.co.uk affirms too, that “the future of luxury is time.” Spend it wisely instead of spending it like other things taken for granted.
10
Land
In “The Sopranos”, Tony Soprano says, “Buy land, AJ, ’cause God ain’t making any more of it.” And it’s 100% accurate. Be sure to watch our video, 15 Business Lessons from Sopranos (TV Show), for more insightful quotes and lessons from the series.
If we ask the question, is the world running out of space? The answer is technically no, but we are running out of liveable space.
As written by Rachel Nuwer for the BBC, “around half of the world’s land currently holds around 2% of the planet’s population, whereas only about 3% of total land supports more than half of humanity. But a growing population does mean that the number of relatively pristine places left to visit will also likely decrease, thanks to an ever-increasing demand for resources needed to support urban lives.”
11
Helium
Aluxers, there’s more to helium than just blowing up party balloons, inhaling it and sounding like a chipmunk. This gas is used for inflating blimps, as inert shields for arc welding, it pressurizes the fuel tanks of liquid fuelled rockets and in cryogenics.
Helium is a non-renewable resource. It’s generated deep underground through the natural breakdown of elements such as uranium and thorium. From there it seeps up through the Earth making pockets of natural gas, which is extracted.
According to Sophia Hayes, a chemist at Washington University in St. Louis, “It’s the one element out of the entire periodic table that escapes the Earth and goes out into outer space.”
It’s in short supply, and only a few countries have access to it.
12
Swimming in the Ocean
Sure, the water will still be there, and you can swim if you want to – but considering all the sh*t that’s pumped into our ocean on the daily, you’d be too afraid of picking up e-coli, or some other disease from all the cr*p.
There are already beaches in places like Mumbai or Lebanon, where people refuse to get into the water because of the high levels of pollution.
Every year, roughly 14 billion pounds of rubbish is dumped into the ocean, most of it plastic and a large portion… recyclable.
13
Coal and Natural Gas
Ourworldindata.org confirm, “Fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) are finite — consume them for long enough and global resources will eventually run out.”
As it stands, it’s predicted that we’d run out by 2060, but if global demand continues to rise, it could be a lot earlier than that.
Renewable energy sources are the alternative, and people are finding new and more sustainable ways of generating their own gas. One example is converting cow dung into methane, which is then used to cook food on.
Just a small FYI, you can use human excrement to do this too!
14
A High-End Restaurant Meal
We haven’t touched on Covid, and there will be many things that were taken for granted in the past, that will be a luxury once we are out of the thick of things.
Having gatherings with our friends and family, visiting elderly people, going on vacation, not home-schooling… and we’re sure you can think of many more to add to the list.
One thing that will be a luxury, according to an opinion article on Bloomberg, is that “if you’re looking to physically sit in a restaurant and have your meal served to you by a human in the near future, be prepared to pay up,” contributed by Conor Sen.
Until then, it seems like instant noodles will have to suffice.
Not only restaurants, the entire world has been a victim of Covid. Check out 15 Countries That Are Going Bankrupt Because of COVID.
15
Luxury Itself
Aluxers, the concept of luxury is changing. Historically, we’ve been attracted to the illustrious history of a brand, but not anymore.
Young buyers are far more concerned about ethically sourced items, quality, and sustainable work practises where employees are treated fairly and paid a decent wage.
So, it’s not that luxury will become a luxury, but luxury as we know it will fade away if brands don’t transform to provide their consumers with exactly what they want, and what our planet needs.
Question:
What can you add to our list of things that will become a luxury? We’d love to hear from you.
