Maria, over at Skeptically Left, and I had a brief discussion about frustration. I suggested that frustration is, in essence, the feeling we get when we don’t get what we want.
Maria replied that it was more about not getting what we needed and my response was “Humans in general and Americans in particular have difficulty with the difference between need and want.” We agreed that was true.
Then I got to thinking about. I honestly do really need an internet connection. I couldn’t work without it (I work from home almost every day). Is the internet a ‘need’ or a ‘want’.
Obviously, I could get another job where I didn’t need an internet connection. But I like my job. I’m good at it. And I”m making a difference. I have no desire for another job. I desperately need a job. That’s another need. I could live off the land (maybe)… but not in central Texas.
My needs are very different from an aboriginal African who is looking for his or her next meal or is trying to survive the civil war in their country (that they might or might not even understand).
Am I speaking from privilege when I say that I need a good job and I need an internet connection? Or is it just the circumstances of my birth that those things are important to me and my culture.
Am I trying to justify my ‘wants’ as ‘needs’? I’m not sure. I don’t think that anyone could survive as a hunter/gather or even primitive farmer in modern countries. There’s no free places where one could hunt whatever they wanted or grow whatever they wanted without taxes, regulation, permits, and the like. In our culture, the needs are the same “food, shelter, water, love”, but the method of acquiring those needs have altered. I need a driver’s license or photo ID. You just can’t be in our society without one.
I don’t know, what do you think?
Are needs and wants relative?
