Don't you hate when people say that?  I understand why people say that, but that kind of phrase somewhat annoys me (it depends how the person says it).  It is true that people got along well enough without them, but that doesn't mean they have to or should now.  That applies to any similar statement (they didn't have cars 100 years ago, etc).

When someone says something like that, you can say something like this as a rebuttal - "they didn't have hospitals either."  It works whenever I say it.  However, I say it as a sarcastic joke.  If you say this in the wrong way, people will get mad at you for appearing to be snobbish and rude.

I wonder what would happen if everybody did this...