Monday, January 31, 2005
From Needs to Wants
In a conversation today with a friend we discussed the transition from needs to wants. We know that people have basic needs and after that move up to wants and desires. So the needs get met and then the incongruent behaviors appear. Those foundational influences only reach so high up the want chain.
In the Bill Moyers piece, you see one who believes that we are despoiling our nation and wasting resources, and those nasty Christians are to blame. But the result of consuming resources is more efficient use of the resources as their costs increase. While he is correct that some resources truly have limits. Do we want to constrain our current potential when it might be that potential that opens opportunities we never imagined. Life is not a fixed sum game. As people become more productive, they gain more wealth. With more wealth, they consume more goods creating more demand and likely competition to produce those goods more efficiently. The consumption of goods can actually end up resulting in more efficient use of those limited resources. Artificial controls contraining the consumption are naive and not the answer. We are where we are because those before us produced and consumed resources. Their productivity consumed entire forests and prairies, but we now have farmers producing goods to feed our nation and beyond. The market works as a strong guide to not be wastefully using our resources.
Is it a need or want for Bill's vision of a better future for his grandchildren? The vision is a need we all share. How we want to realize it is where we don't yet see eye to eye.
In the Bill Moyers piece, you see one who believes that we are despoiling our nation and wasting resources, and those nasty Christians are to blame. But the result of consuming resources is more efficient use of the resources as their costs increase. While he is correct that some resources truly have limits. Do we want to constrain our current potential when it might be that potential that opens opportunities we never imagined. Life is not a fixed sum game. As people become more productive, they gain more wealth. With more wealth, they consume more goods creating more demand and likely competition to produce those goods more efficiently. The consumption of goods can actually end up resulting in more efficient use of those limited resources. Artificial controls contraining the consumption are naive and not the answer. We are where we are because those before us produced and consumed resources. Their productivity consumed entire forests and prairies, but we now have farmers producing goods to feed our nation and beyond. The market works as a strong guide to not be wastefully using our resources.
Is it a need or want for Bill's vision of a better future for his grandchildren? The vision is a need we all share. How we want to realize it is where we don't yet see eye to eye.
# posted by Steve @ 11:15 PM 
