20 Things That Used to Be Synonymous with Wealth but Are Worthless Today

In the early days of the automobile, owning a car was a considerable expense. Roads were in poor condition, repairs required specialized skills, and these vehicles were more like toys for the wealthy than a simple means of transportation. Today, a car can still be expensive, but in many places, that mainly means you live somewhere where a car is essential.

When electricity first came into homes, it wasn’t just convenient—it was impressive. A house equipped with electric lighting stood out clearly from those that still used candles, oil lamps, or gas lamps. Today, flipping a light switch has become so commonplace that we only think about electricity when there’s a power outage.

In the past, having indoor plumbing was a major sign that a household had attained a level of comfort that most people did not enjoy. Running water, a private bathroom, and an indoor toilet have transformed daily life in ways that are hard to overstate. Today, these are rightly considered basic necessities, but they were once a true indicator of social class.

In the past, having a landline meant being connected to the outside world in a way that many others were not. Early telephones were expensive, limited by infrastructure, and often seen as a sign of professional success, importance, or social influence. Today, the sound of a ringing phone mostly arouses suspicion.

In the past, doing laundry was backbreaking work. Before electric washing machines became widespread, doing laundry involved fetching water, scrubbing clothes by hand, wringing them out, and spending most of the day on the task. In the past, owning a washing machine helped households lighten the load of one of the most tedious household chores; today, it’s just a machine that everyone forgets to empty.

Before the advent of home refrigerators, keeping food fresh meant relying on ice deliveries, cellars, or shopping more often. The refrigerator made it possible to manage food better, reduce waste, and give the kitchen a modern look. Today, it’s so commonplace that the real domestic drama is discovering an expired item at the back of the refrigerator.

The first vacuum cleaners were expensive, heavy, and sometimes sold directly to wealthy households that owned carpets that needed protecting. Before that, cleaning floors involved sweeping, beating out carpets, and spreading dust everywhere. Today, a vacuum cleaner is no longer a sign of wealth; it’s synonymous with crumbs, pet hair, and the fact that someone probably should have taken care of it yesterday.

In the 1920s, a radio could make it seem as though the living room was connected to the entire country. News, music, sports, and speeches made their way into homes without anyone having to get up from their armchair. Today, sound is everywhere, and you’re more likely to find a radio in a car than to hear about one in class.

In the past, owning a computer at home was a sign that a family was ahead of its time. At the end of the 20th century, it was synonymous with wealth, curiosity, and the feeling that the future was already here. Today, almost everyone has computing power in their pocket far beyond what those early machines could have ever imagined.

In the past, photography was a solemn, expensive affair—and far less casual than it is today. Owning a camera meant you could capture family life without having to hire a professional or wait for a special occasion. Today, everyone takes seventeen bad photos of the same birthday cake and doesn’t delete a single one.

For a long time, a piano was synonymous with education, leisure, and a home spacious enough to accommodate music. It meant that someone had the time to practice and that the family could afford both the instrument and lessons. Today, a piano may still be a beautiful object, but it often simply means that someone inherited it and no one knows how to move it.

In the past, books were so expensive that a personal library spoke volumes about a person’s level of education and social status. A bookshelf filled with books was synonymous with access to knowledge, free time, and, often, a home where refinement was valued. Today, we can buy used books, borrow them, download them, or pile them up, unread, next to the bed, like silent accusations.

In the past, wearing a watch was a practical luxury. Before everyone had a clock on every screen, having the exact time on one’s wrist was synonymous with discipline, wealth, and modernity. Today, a watch can be expensive, inexpensive, digital, inherited, or purely decorative; its symbolic significance is therefore much less pronounced than it once was.

In the past, in many households, clothes were made, mended, altered, and passed down from one generation to the next for as long as possible. Buying ready-to-wear clothing was a sign of purchasing power and access to a rapidly expanding consumer market. Today, store-bought clothing is so commonplace that having a garment repaired rather than replacing it can be seen as a sign of wealth.

In the past, fresh fruit in winter was a true luxury in cold regions. Its availability depended on trade, maritime transport, preservation techniques, or home cultivation—options that most people did not have access to. Today, you can find strawberries in January that look perfect but have almost no flavor.

In the past, sugar was so expensive that people treasured it, displayed it, and used it sparingly. Its history is closely tied to global trade, colonialism, and exploitative systems that made this sweet treat a luxury for some and a source of suffering for others. Today, sugar is so ubiquitous that the challenge is usually to avoid it, not to find it.

Coffee hasn’t always been the casual daily habit it is today. It traveled along trade routes, passed through taxed markets, and became part of social rituals before becoming a staple of everyday life in kitchens. In the past, drinking coffee at home was a sign of access to imported goods; today, it simply means that someone is waiting in the kitchen for the machine to hurry up.

In the past, people had to work constantly to keep their homes warm. They had to light fires and carry coal, and some rooms were simply colder than others because heating the entire house was expensive. Central heating has made comfort more consistent and reliable; today, arguments are mostly about the thermostat.

In the past, cooking involved mastering fire, fuel, smoke, and heat, which required real skill and a great deal of effort. The advent of the modern stove made cooking cleaner, faster, and easier to control, marking a major change in daily life. Today, it’s simply the appliance everyone stands in front of, complaining that there’s nothing to eat.

In the past, a doorbell represented a modest but noticeable improvement over knocking on the door or calling out from the porch. In older homes, even the simplest signaling systems suggested that the house had been wired, modernized, and set up with visitors in mind. Today, the doorbell has become so commonplace that we only notice it when it isn’t working, or when the model equipped with a camera records the delivery of a package.