If you have a child, you’ve probably had this conversation:
Child – “BUT I NEEEED IT!!”
You – “You don’t need it. You just want it.”
Child – (While lying on the floor screaming and in tears) III NNNEEEDDD IIITTT! I need it! I need it! I need it! NOW!
Ah, the joys of parenthood. If you don’t have children, please feel free to laugh out loud. And if you’re planning on having them, then your day is coming!
I need a haircut. I need to get an oil change. I need to get my nails done. I need a drink. I need a vacation. I need a new car. The list could go on and on. Are these really, as we say, needs? Or are they wants? If I were to tell you there’s a big difference, you would probably be offended. Of course you know that, but the fact is that people tend to use these two very different economic terms interchangeably as if they have similar, or even identical meanings. So what is the difference? When I ask my students this question, they almost always say that a need is something you can’t survive without. A need can either be physical and objective, like food, water, clothing, and shelter or psychological and subjective, like security, autonomy, and self-esteem. A want, on the other hand, is something you desire, but could go without if you had to. A need is survival based. A want is not.
Take a moment to jot down five things that you need, and five things that you want. Easy, right? Seems like it should be, but people frequently have difficulty with this little exercise. We’ve usually heard a lot throughout our lives about the concept of want versus need, but rarely have we ever taken the time to sit down and really think about it from a personal standpoint.
| Want | Need |
| 1. | 1. |
| 2. | 2. |
| 3. | 3. |
| 4. | 4. |
| 5. | 5. |
Now imagine that you make your living as a hair model and have an upcoming audition for a new Clairol commercial. You haven’t had a job in some time and landing this gig is absolutely necessary if you are going to maintain your current lifestyle while continuing to pay all of your bills on time. The audition is in two days and on your way to the salon to get your hair cut and colored, your car breaks down. Without your car you can’t get your hair done. You need to get your hair done if there’s any chance you’re going to land that audition. You need your car. So after you call the salon to reschedule your hair appointment for the next day, you call up your insurance company, get the car towed to the nearest mechanic, and pray that whatever it is can be fixed quickly. After giving the car a once over, the mechanic informs you that it’s going to take three days to fix the car. You need to be at that audition. You need your car sooner than three days.
Using the distinction outlined above, is the word need used accurately in this scenario or should we have used want here instead? Let’s take a look at what’s being threatened. Security? Autonomy? Self-esteem? All three seem like likely possibilities. Are security, autonomy, and self-esteem things that we can survive without? For most of us, the answer is no. Not for any length of time anyway. So if security, autonomy, and self-esteem are necessary for survival and are in fact being threatened by the loss of access to your car, then based on the distinction outlined above, the use of the word need in this scenario is correct. What if, however, you were able to avoid the threat to security, autonomy, and self-esteem by renting a car, taking the bus, or getting help from a family member or friend? In that case, the loss of access to your car becomes an inconvenience as opposed to a threat to survival, and use of the word want is more accurate.
Earlier, we discussed the role of perception in the initiation of the fight or flight response during episodes of acute or chronic stress. We determined that a threat to survival, whether actual or perceived, was necessary for the initiation of the fight or flight response and concluded that one way to reduce the harmful psychological and physiological effects of stress and the fight or flight response might be to focus on changing our perceptions of situations that are not truly life threatening. So how is that related to our current discussion on wants versus needs?
If needs are things that we can’t survive without, then any time a threat to one’s needs is present, whether physical or psychological, actual or perceived, the result will be acute or chronic stress. Any time we convince ourselves that we need something, whether we actually need it or not, we place ourselves at greater risk for suffering higher levels of stress in the event that something threatens our ability to meet that need. When you consider how often people use the terms need and want interchangeably, as if they have similar, or even identical meanings, this initially seemingly small and insignificant human tendency, now has some pretty serious implications. Might it behoove us all to pay a bit more attention to the stress we may be inadvertently adding to our lives by thoughtlessly mis-classifying our wants as needs?
MEANINGFUL CONSUMERISM 