Needs, wants, and excessive consumption
I have been fascinated seeing my dad’s guitar collection growing from zero to six in the past few years. Six guitars are possibly reasonable for a professional musician, but for a hobby guitarist is a tad excessive. And excess, as you might already know, is my arch enemy.
One sunny day I couldn’t contain my curiosity and bluntly asked: Dad, why the hell do you have six guitars? So he explained:
“I needed one to learn to begin with. Then I got better so I needed a better one. This one I need because if Joe (the neighbour who is in his garage band) comes over to practice he doesn’t have to bring his own, and oh this one I needed to buy because it has a longer neck than the others and it was super discounted anyway”…and so on.
Okay, I paraphrased a bit to emphasize my point: He explained that he needed all these guitars for different reasons. Wait, did you just say that you need to have a guitar because someone is too lazy to bring their own? Need? Is that the right word?
In the western consumer culture we have a hard time differentiating our true needs from flimsy desires. We are surrounded by abundance, everything and anything is available with a few clicks and we are constantly encouraged (if not pressured) to consume. Who has the energy, time or motivation to think about the difference between needs and desires? And why would we anyway?
Because our habit of consuming so much more than we need is ruining the planet. The more stuff we buy, the more raw material is extracted and the more CO2 is emitted during the production process. Reducing our consumption is necessary to reach a sustainable future. Understanding the difference between needs and desires is critical because it could help us be more selective with our purchases. It is much easier to cut back on buying excess stuff when we understand what it is that we truly need and what it is that we just simply want. At least that is my theory and hope. And for that, we have to understand the difference between needs and wants.
Economics define needs as something that is necessary for survival such as air, food, water, clothing and shelter. Everything else that is good to have, but not essential for survival are wants. This is a simple, black and white (ish) split, but reality is more complex than this. Because we don’t just want to survive on oxygen and bread, we want to thrive. And for that we need a bit more than the absolute minimum.
For example, let’s examine how technological development changed our needs. 50 years ago life without a computer was not a problem. People sent each other letters, documents were filed in cabinets and money was printed on paper. Today, instant communication is the bloodstream of our life, files are shared and stored digitally and money is numbers on the bank account. Computers have become a necessity. As technology and society evolves our material needs evolve so we can stay relevant, be a valuable member of our society. Yesterday’s novelties turn into today’s necessities.
Then, we have to understand that material needs are contextual. As one article explains:
’As in all other contexts of use, to speak of “a need” or being “in need” presupposes a standard or norm, and different norms will create different “needs”. (1)
In other words, depending on the norms in the society one lives in, the needs can change. Just think about americas’ dependence on cars compared to Europe’s more pedestrian friendly cities. Or think about how the rising standard of living changes the norms and thus our needs.
“Luxury goods appear to have become necessities for many people living in the West, especially people on higher incomes. Research conducted by the Pew Research Centre (2006) found that the more income consumers earned the more likely they were to view material goods (e.g., microwave, clothes dryer and television) as necessities rather than luxuries. Freezers were once considered to be novelty items but they are now owned by the majority of the population in the developed world and considered a need rather than a want (Hand & Shove, 2007).” (2)
And finally we have to consider the subjective experience of people. For a disabled person who has difficulty cooking, a microwave is a need while for a stay at home parent it is a mere convenience.
Therefore I argue that material needs are subjective, contextual and they change as our society and technology evolves. Thus it is close to impossible to have a fixed general classification of needs and wants. There is no black and white list of needs, something like an officiall guideline to help consumers make intentional and thought-through purchase decisions. Indeed, the opposite is true. We are constantly encouraged to buy on impulse, buy more, bigger, newer, and forget about the environmental and social consequences of our purchases.
Marketing, advertising and PR departments are some of the driving agents behind our obsessive consumption. Businesses understand that what we really need is not their product itself, but rather the idea, the promise behind it: safety, health, love, belonging, freedom, and respect from others. These conceptual needs were established by Maslow and illustrated in the famous pyramid shaped hyerarchy of needs. By coupling their products to these conceptual needs, businesses can plant the desire for material stuff in the deepest parts of our brains. This is how it looks in action:
- Safety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Uv18yOoN4
Buy this new car because it’s going to keep you (and your family) safe so you can be a better parent. - Love, belonging: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fiw9j8AIYE
Buy this gadget to bring your family happy moments, express your love to others and feel connected. This ad also plays on our fear of being lonely. (Side note: Also, get this gadget to get rid of your kids when it’s convenient for you.) - Status, recognition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ3aArrtQdQ
Buy these clothes so people are going to associate you with fabulous super models and adventurous lifestyles.
In other words, we have material desires and once they are connected to higher-level needs our brain gets confused, and desires turn into “needs”. As Juliet Schor puts it in The Overspent American:``What we want grows into what we need”. (3)
In the absence of an official guideline about needs and wants, and under the constant pressure to consume more than we need, what can consumers do?
First and foremost we can and should develop our inner guideline for more mindful purchase decisions. This is no easy quiet since we are constantly bombarded with advertising and social pressure to consume but with self-discipline, mindfulness and patience it is absolutely doable.
Second, we should stop using the word “need” to justify flimsy purchases. I believe deep down, maybe deep deep deep down, we already know that buying more than we need is inappropriate. So whenever we feel a flaming desire, we just label it a need, both in our mind and with our words, to avoid moral remorse. I recommend we stop the BS and be more transparent with ourselves. Admit when we buy out of desire and see how we feel about the consequences.
Third, we have to become more conscious about the deceptive techniques used by companies to sell more. When we see an ad, we should stop focusing on the fabulous models and flashy visuals and start reading between the lines to see how it tempers with our mind.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that buying exclusively what we need is the way to go. Cutting down on excess consumption however (optimally reducing it to the minimum) is necessary for a sustainable future. We must become more purposeful with our purchases and by looking inside and setting guidelines for ourselves is a good first step.
At the same time, the burden of saving the planet can not be put on the consumer entirely. Businesses must do their own part and develop a more responsible approach toward selling and producing stuff.
Resources:
(1)Doyal L, Gough I., (1984) A theory of human needs. Critical Social Policy.
(2) Genovese, J. C., (2017) Tackling Materialism and Overconsumption on a Finite Planet
(3) Shor, Juliet. (1999), Overspent Americans: Why we buy what we don’t need, New York :HarperPerennial
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Disclaimer: I aim to keep my articles rooted in science, however this is a more opinionated piece. I indicated the information gathered from other sources in the text while the rest is my take on the subject. My opinion is subject to change, indeed I expect it to change as I’m learning more about this topic. If you think there is a book / article that could benefit my learning, please let me know in the comments below.
