What do you want? What do you need? Can you tell
apart wanting something from needing something? It's a hot day,
you're on a long walk. You are thirsty. Dehydration can be dangerous. You need water. But you want a sparkling, fruit-flavoured soft drink. The carbonated sugary
drink is twice as expensive. And it’s bad for you. Water is the cheapest thing
in the shop, and it's literally what your body needs. What's going on in your
brain that makes you reach for that tin of fizzy pop? A sense of reward or
entitlement maybe?
All around you, corporations – big businesses – are
telling you that your wants are actually your needs. That you can justify
giving in to your wants. "It's me time!" "Go on – indulge
yourself!" “Retail therapy!” Throughout my childhood, I was bombarded with
advertisements for confectionery from all angles. Ad breaks on TV. Eat sweets.
Chocolates. Biscuits. All for pennies. Full-page ads in my comics. Billboards.
Eating large amounts of sweets was as natural for children as chain-smoking was
for adults. The result? Bad teeth. Dental decay, regular (and painful) visits
to the dentist. Accretion of fatty tissues around internal organs. Heart
problems in later life.
Was that sugar needed? Not at all. The sugar that
makes eating fruit pleasurable is a biological adaptation; it’s a signal from
the taste-buds to the brain that the fruit you are eating has reached its maximum
vitamin value, and needs to be picked and eaten. Eat it, and build up your
Vitamin C reserves before the winter. But eating sweets? There’s no benefit
whatsoever. The energy that sugar delivers comes in the form of a brief spike
that burns as quickly as old newspapers on a bonfire, a sugar rush, and in any
case your liver cannot transform all that sugar into useful energy, the bulk of
it just turning into body fat.
And so it is with so many of our wants; they have
negative long-term consequences that are unintended or unexpected at the time
of consumption. New clothes, big cars, exotic holidays… do we really need these
things? Tot up the money that the average person spends on needs, and how much
they spend on wants, and the difference between the two over a lifetime can be
huge. The difference between living a comfortable old age and doing so in
poverty and discomfort.
You will often be upsold to; a salesperson will
turn your need (cheap) into a want (expensive). A more powerful engine. Alloy
wheels. Metallic paint. The difference between the base model and the top of
the range with all the extras can be double the price. When you’re in this
situation, you are vulnerable. If you know where your needs end and your wants
begin, you are in a better bargaining position; the salesperson can’t twist
your arm.
Addressing your needs means ironing out discomfort
– thirst, hunger, cold, illness; you need shelter – ideally your own home, not
a rented one. It needn't be fancy, but it should be comfortable, cosy, and
yours. In the same way as being able to define the border between wants and
needs, you need to be able to define the border between comfort and luxury.
Luxury isn't merely about luxuriating; it is principally showing off. It assumes
that other people are easily impressed by the trappings of wealth. Do you want
to impress? Does this count in life?
Garden pub for the działka
Down the line from York
This time 12 years ago:
Czester and his sister
This time 14 years ago:
The Cold Weather Guys - a short story
This time 15 years ago:
Bike ride along the banks of the Vistula
This time 16 years ago:
Three hill walks around Dobra
This time 17 years ago:
90th Anniversary of the Polish Navy
This time 18 years ago:
Memory and comfort
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