From the archives

On the incessant debate of: Need and Want!

When we grow out of our teenage years and start to give a little bit more thought to life, the idea of need and want is debated. The seeds are sown by Maslow during highschool economics classes.

While Maslow may have given a valid pyramid, perhaps, somewhere in my mid 20s I started to realise, talking about “need and want” was as futile an idea as “who came first, chicken or egg”.

Now, since the lockdown the below meme has started to do the rounds :

‘It's funny how the world economy is about to collapse just because people are buying only what they really need.’

This again is as futile a statement as “chicken and egg”. The simple fact is people are NOT buying what they need to live the lives they want to live.

See, how both need and want can be so easily covered in the same sentence?

The economy is crashing for various other reasons, but, not because people are only buying what they “need”. Nobody needs to hoard but, that’s rampant these days and most people are not even buying the things that they need right now because they can’t even do everything that they need/want to do right now.

Stuck in the house, not being able to get out of the house, is not really an ideal way of living (unless you are a cave living yogi, remember?!)

What we are doing right now is broadly “cave living” advanced by Internet technology. A yogi living in a cave has different needs/wants as compared to any other person.

Without even talking about how terribly the “most vulnerable has been most affected group”, it is safe to say, nobody is leading even a normal life, forget an environment damaging life. We are definitely leading an economy damaging existence.

If, everyone on this planet can continue to live EXACTLY the way they are living right now, for the rest of their lives then sure, you can say “need made the economy crash”. But, otherwise let’s stop talking about chicken and eggs and think more about how to grow economies sustainably and inclusively. That’s the only way to stop the economies from crashing or preventing future disasters!

And yes, it is possible to make all economies grow and thrive without damaging and killing the planet #justsaying