DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

VISAKHAPATNAM, A.P., INDIA

“NEED AND WANTS”

ECONOMICS

PROF. ABHISHEK SINHA

DEVVRAT GARHWAL
2016032

1st SEM
SEC- “A”
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have taken efforts in this projects. However, itwould not have been possible
without the kind support and help of many individuals and organisations. I would
like to extend my sincere thanks to Prof.Abhishek Sinha for guiding me though
this project.

I am highly indebted to DSNLU VIZAG for their guidance and constant

supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project
and also for their support in completion of this project.

My thanks and appreciations also go to my colleagues in developing the project

and people who have willingly helped me out with their abilities.
 CONTENTS
1. Acknowledgement
2. Preface
3. Abstract
4. Introduction
5. Defination
6. Three type of Economic sector which influence the Economy
7. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
8. Classification of Need
9. Need of a citizen according to law
10.Wants
11.Scarcity
12.Economic Theory of Need and Wants
13.Importance of wants
14.Need and Wants – the Birth giver to the Consumer Market

.
INTRODUCTION –
Every one need certain things to survive in the life. Means that for the basic
survival person need some basic expenses like Food, Shelter, and House. But the
person is not fully sufficient with these basic things and Wants some level of
things in his life. As his livelihood increases, his level of living also increase with
it. Man always have starvation to achieve more in his life, he is not ready to live
with the thing what he have in the present but he have a feeling to get the more
things which he wants to achieve in his future. It is the way i.e. luxury he wants.
Need will be defined as those things which are required for the basic survival of
oneself i.e. the basic things without which he cannot survive i.e. food, shelter,
health care and house. Wants are the good or services that are no necessary for the
survival but that we desire or wish for.
A need is defined as a circumstance in which something is necessary, a thing that
is wanted or required. Want refers to scarcity, the state of being absent, or a desire
for something necessary to life. The concepts of need and want are present in
social sciences literature since its earlier stages. Central to the depiction and
evaluation of production and consumption systems and activities, they are also
significant for the discussion and characterization of broader topics, ranging from
the distinctive nature of modern capitalism and the problems of social cohesion
and inequality it generated to matters of human agency, particularly in the context
of the new social order termed the consumer society. Because of the vastness of
the theoretical debates and the multiplicity of approaches it generated, needs/wants
can be addressed via diverse disciplinary and theoretical perspectives and lines of
inquiry.
Sociologist Don Slater is responsible for one of the most productive contemporary
works in this matter. Slater introduces the idea that the centrality of the concept of
need in the context of social sciences resides in the fact that consumer culture
should be understood as a particular historical arrangement for producing and
mediating human needs, and therefore, its evaluation depends on its performance,
or its ability to respond to them. However, since needs are defined by people, to
assess the performance of consumer culture to react positively to people's needs, it
is first necessary to collectively identify what is needed and/or wanted by each
society. This assumption links the social definition of needs to the question of how
people should live their lives, placing consumption at the heart of the political
debate. It articulates, as Slater states, visions of “the good life.” To say that
something is needed means claiming the allocation of a certain amount of
resources to the production and reproduction of a modality of life, which embodies
particular values. Moreover, people tend to satisfy their needs through
commodities, that is, things acquired in the market, which contributes to the
enhancement of the gap between their roles as producers and consumers. This
“secondhand” relationship with contemporary material culture raises issues
directly related to consumer agency that, as sociologist Roberta Sassatelli stresses,
concentrate in the rationalities that guide consumer behavior. Thus, besides being
central to the discussion of how people should live, the concept of need is also
pivotal to the discussion of how people make sense of their actions as consumers.

Definition

According the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a "want" is defined as having a

strong desire for something. The word "need" is defined as lack of the means of
subsistence. In every arena of life, the two concepts are opposing elements
(Merriam-Webster Online).

The principle behind these two basic opposing eliminates is dualism. "Dualism is
any theory or system of thought that recognizes two and only two independent and
mutually irreducible principles or substances, which are sometimes complementary
and sometimes in conflict" (Choudhury 1994).

For the purpose of this paper, the role for-profit and not-for-profits play in
delivering the "wants" and "needs" of the United States population will be
addressed from an economic theory perspective. "Economics is a social science
that deals with the production, distribution, consumption of goods and services and
their management". There are three type of Economic sector in the market which
influence the economy of a country which includes –

1. Public Sector – Public Sector which includes the government, often fills the
"needs" of society by providing such things as roads, schools and public
assistance or welfare. The funds providing these services arrive largely in
the form of taxes.

2. For-Profit Sector – This sector generally addresses the "wants" of society

by producing and distributing goods and services to a portion of the
population based on demand. Demand is the ability and desire to purchase
goods and services. If there is a high demand, the for-profit sector will
supply those wants, some examples of what the population demands from
this sector include luxury cars, expensive restaurants and many others. The
main goal of the for-profit sector is to make a profit. By supplying the
 demands of those that can afford to "want," this sector will always remain a
vital part of the economy.

3. Not-for-profit Sector-This sector is mostly responsible for the "needs" of

the society. Not-for-profits are mission driven organizations. In this aspect,
they vary little from mission-based for-profits. Yet, the missions of the not-
for profits are usually socially and humanistically based whereas for-profit
missions are driven by finance and commerce. This is the primary reason
not-for-profits are more responsible for the "needs" of the population.

NEED –
Needs would be defined as goods or services that are required. This would include
theneeds forfood, clothing, shelter and health care.Needs are based on
physiological, personal, or socio-economic requirements necessary for you to
function and live. Transportation is a need for the modern, urban person because
work, food, and other necessities of daily life are too far from where he lives.In
today’s world needs are increased in the changing economy. In today’s world, like
Education now is not the want but is a Need of a person and in changing world,
needs are increasing day by day like in coming time internet will also become the
basic need of the citizens of a country. Need are those things without which we
cannot live. Good and survices without which one cannot live that is it can be fresh
food, clothes or it can be fresh air. A Need is something that you have to have. You
don’t have any other choice, something without you cannot do anything. Goods
and Services which consumers can live without. Things we cannot live without,
but would like to have.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs --
Need is defined by many great economists in different manner. Abraham Maslow
in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation wrote about this theory and
defined in a well settled manner. He proposed Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a
theory in psychology proposed.Maslow mainly classified it into three broader parts
which further divided into five further subparts.
(A)Self-fulfilment Needs- Those needs which are fulfiled by oneself only i.e.
internal sufficiency.
 1.Self-actualization – It means that achieving one’s full potential including
creative activity.
(B)Psychological Needs—Theseare the needs which are not like food, shelter, or
any other psychical needs but it is the internal feelings like the feelings for the
friends or feeling for the loved ones.
1. Esteem Needs –Needs which is prestige and feeling of accomplishment.
2. Belongingness and loved ones – It is for intimate relations like heart
touching feeling with friends and loved ones.
(C)Basic Needs -- It means the needs which are essential for the common man i.e.
health, water, air, food.
1. Safety Needs – It is security and safety.
2.Physiological Needs— Need’s which are essential like food, water, warmth,
rest.

Needs Classification–
1. Physiological Needs:These are self-explanatory; they are the literal
requirements for human survival. If these are requirement are not met, the
human body simply cannot continue to function.Breathing, Nutrition,
Homeostasis, Human interaction.Air, water, and food are metabolic
requirements for survival in all animals, includinghumans.Clothing and
shelter provide necessary protection from the elements.The intensity of the
human instinct in maintaining a birth rate adequate to survival of thespecies.

2. Physiological Needs:These are self-explanatory; they are the literal

requirements for human survival. If theserequirements are not met, the
human body simply cannot continue to function.Breathing, Nutrition,
Homeostasis, Human interaction.Air, water, and food are metabolic
requirements for survival in all animals, includinghumans.Clothing and
shelter provide necessary protection from the elements.The intensity of the
human instinct in maintaining a birth rate adequate to survival of thespecies.

3. Safety Needs:With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individuals

safety needs takeprecedence and dominate behavior. These needs have to do
with peoples earning for apredictable orderly world in which perceived
 unfairness and inconsistency are undercontrol, the familiar frequent and the
unfamiliar rare. In the world of work, these safetyneeds manifest themselves
in such things as a preference for job security, grievanceprocedures for
protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings
accounts,insurance policies, reasonable disability accommodations, and the
like.Safety and Security needs include:•Personal security•Financial
security•Health and well-being•Safety net against accidents/illness and their
adverse impacts.

4. Belongingness and love needs:After physiological and safety needs are

fulfilled, the third layer of human needs are socialand involve feelings of
belongingness. This aspect of Maslow’s hierarchy involvesemotionally
based relationships in general, such as:Friendship - Intimacy –
FamilyHumans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it
comes from a largesocial group, such as clubs, office culture, religious
groups, professional organizations,sports teams, gangs, or small social
connections (family members, intimate partners,mentors, close colleagues,
confidants). They need to love and be loved.In the absence of these
elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and
clinicaldepression. This need for belonging can often overcome the
physiological and security needs, depending on thestrength of the peer
pressure; an anorexic, for example, may ignore the need to eat and the
security of health for afeeling of control and belonging.

5. Esteem Needs:All humans have a need to be respected and to have self-

esteem and self-respect. Alsoknown as the belonging need, esteem presents
the normal human desire to be acceptedand valued by others. People need to
engage themselves to gain recognition and have anactivity or activities that
give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be
it in a profession or hobby.Most people have a need for a stable self-respect
and self-esteem. Maslow noted twoversions of esteem needs, a lower one
and a higher one. The lower one is the need for therespect of others, the need
for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. Thehigher one is the
need for self-respect, the need for strength, competence, mastery, self-
confidence, independence and freedom. The latter one ranks higher because
it rests moreon inner competence won through experience. Deprivation of
these needs can lead to aninferiority complex, weakness and helplessness.

6. Self-actualization:“What a man can be, he must be.”This forms the basis of

the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of needpertains to what
 a persons full potential is and realizing that potential. Maslow describesthis
desire as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become
everythingthat one is capable of becoming. This is a broad definition of the
need for self-actualization, but when applied to individuals the need is
specific. For example oneindividual may have the strong desire to become
an ideal parent.

6. Esteem Needs:All humans have a need to be respected and to have self-

esteem and self-respect. Alsoknown as the belonging need, esteem presents
the normal human desire to be acceptedand valued by others. People need to
engage themselves to gain recognition and have anactivity or activities that
give the person a sense of contribution, to feel accepted and self-valued, be
it in a profession or hobby.Most people have a need for a stable self-respect
and self-esteem. Maslow noted twoversions of esteem needs, a lower one
and a higher one. The lower one is the need for therespect of others, the need
for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention. Thehigher one is the
need for self-respect, the need for strength, competence, mastery, self-
confidence, independence and freedom. The latter one ranks higher because
it rests moreon inner competence won through experience. Deprivation of
these needs can lead to aninferiority complex, weakness and helplessness.

7. Self-actualization:“What a man can be, he must be”This forms the basis of

the perceived need for self-actualization. This level of needcertain to what a
person’s full potential is and realizing that potential. Maslow describesthis
desire as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become
everythingthat one is capable of becoming. This is a broad definition of the
need for self-actualization, but when applied to individuals the need is
specific. For example oneindividual may have the strong desire to become
an ideal parent.

Needs of a Citizenaccording to Law –

 Clean air (Article 24 – health

 Clean water (Article 24 – health)

 Decent shelter (Article 27 – standard of living)

 Education (Articles 28 & 29)

  Express your opinion (Article 12)

 Medical care (Article 24)

 Nutritious food (Article 24)

 Play (Article 31)

 Practice beliefs, cultural and language(Article 30)

 Protection from abuse and neglect (Article 19)

 Protection from discrimination (Article 2)

WANTS –
Wants are a means to fulfilling our needs. You may be able bike to work, use
public transportation, or drive your own vehicle. While any of the choices
willwork, you want a car to fulfill your need for transportation .Wants are goods or
services that are not necessary but that we desire or wish for. For example, one
needs clothes, but one may not need designer clothes. One needs food, but does not
have to have steak or dessert.Wants on the other hand, are a means to fulfilling our
needs. You may be able bike to work, use public transportation, or drive your own
vehicle. While any of the choices will work, you want a car to fulfill your need for
transportation.

An important part of economics is the distribution of resources or goods so that

people's needs are met. This is especially true in times of scarcity when there are
not enough resources, goods or services.Want refers to scarcity, the state of being
absent, or a desire for something necessary to life.

A want, in economics, is one step up in the order from needs and is simply
something that people desire to have, that they may, or may not, be able to obtain.
Again, with those two simple definitions, it doesn't seem like there should be much
to talk about, but there is. Economics deals with how we allocate scarce resources,
and those scarce resources may be needed to meet someone people's needs and
other people's wants. So, we do need to talk about wants and needs.

Imagine a farmer of barely. After his harvest he can has two potential customers:
one that wants to buy his barely in the hopes to make an import beer and the other
that wants to use the barely to make bread. Most people, if answering seriously,
could acknowledge that bread is more important in a healthy diet than beer. Who
does the farmer sell to? Should the reason someone wants to buy his product
matter? Shouldn't he just sell for the highest price? These are the difficult questions
about wants and needs that economics struggles to answer.

As the Wants of a person increases day by day and every want cannot be fulfilled
and that laid to the Scarcity in the market.

Wants of a person which is there in the Law –

 Bicycle

 Fashionable clothes

 Fast food

 Holiday trips

 Money to spend

 Personal computer

 Mobile phone

 Television

 Own bedroom

– luxury, but there are issues around privacy (Article 16)

Scarcity –
Scarcity is due to the difference between the people’s “unlimited wants and of
Limited resources”.

 The basic economic problem arises due to the unlimited wants and the
limited resources.
  There are not enough resources in the world to satisfy the unlimited wants
and desire of all the persons.

 Scarcity limits the total output from the Economy.

 Scarcity, however doesn’t imply that the amount of resources or the state of
technology is fixed.

 Every want that end up with a satisfy cause one or more wants to remain
un-fulfilled.

NEEDS AND WANTS BY ECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW –

The economic conceptof needs and wants is to utilize the fictional concept of the
economic man, who acts rationally to maximize his potential to consume goods
and services that offer him the highest degree of utility or satisfaction. Our
economic man's quest is limitless. While your needs may eventually be satisfied
for a while, according to economic theory, wants never are.
The economic definition of a Need is something needed to survive. In economics,
the idea of survival is real, meaning someone would die without their needs being
met. This includes things like food, water, and shelter.
A Want, in economics, is one step up in the order from needs and is simply
something that people desire to have, that they may, or may not, be able to
obtain. Again, with those two simple definitions, it doesn't seem like there should
be much to talk about, but there is. Economics deals with how we allocate scarce
resources, and those scarce resources may be needed to meet someone people's
needs and other people's wants. So, we do need to talk about wants and needs.
Economic Theory for Need and Wants --
Economic theory is nothing more than a theory of transactions. It is the theory of
supplying goods and services. A key term in economic theory is the game theory.
Game theory explains competition in terms of gains and losses among opposing
players (Game Theory Society). In the preceding example, both sectors are
opposing players in the game. For each player's best interest, game theory strategy
suggests collaboration to lessen both sides' losses and increase the gains.
Inevitably, there will be a winner and a loser in the game and also between the
sectors. Darwin's principle of survival of the fittest applies to all animals, people
and entities. However, with the appropriate business tactics, the loser will still be
in business to serve the "wants" and "needs" of different populations. Welfare
reform reinforced the concept of competition between the sectors, but is also
introduced the benefits of collaboration.

Importance of it --
The Economic theory of the "wants" and "needs" of society are very important to
both the for-profit and not-for-profit sector. Without the for-profit sector, not only
many "wants" but also several "needs" would not be met. The for-profit sector
generates several million dollars a year in taxes alone for the economy. Without
the funds from this sector, many not-for-profits would not be available to serve the
"needs" of society.
The irony of the two sectors' importance is that each need the other to succeed in
their missions. The not-for-profit sector serves a population that generally cannot
afford the goods and services produced by for-profits. Many for-profit companies
support the not-for-profit companies by the manufacture and distribution of these
goods and services through grants, in-kind contributions or other donations. In
turn, the for-profit organizations can use these contributions as tax write-offs on
business taxes. Both sectors are constantly trying to find them in the comfortable
or in the suitable position in the economy. The mission of one is complimentary to
the mission of another.
Need and Wants from Economic point of view –
If one make a list of things of her needs (ωi ) and wants (ηi ), we can map them
into the real number, ω η, ∈∈ and set their relations as inequality of
,ωη
where  denotes the wishlistcomprised by the needs and the wants, as what one
wants would always related to her wishes out of pleasure, as the things she needs
are the things that would be related to necessity out of survival. Needs are things
that are necessary in life, such as food, shelter, and basic necessities that we need
for make a living. Common wants are represented by latest models of cell phones,
plasma TV, IPod, designer jeans, luxury cars, and the like. These are our desires,
but we can continue living and making it out without these in our lives. However,
for people with ability covering what they need, a long list of things they desire
and want might be the source of unhappiness. The different neighborhood sizes of
the social reference for wishes and needs. To know a thing that is wanted but can
reach it can bring agony, and we know such things from people surrounding us,
friends, relatives, as well as the sources of information, e.g.: mass media, books,
magazines, television as well as educational program we follow. The sizes of our
sight and horizon in the jungle of social networks play an important role shaping
what we desire. Yet, what become our needs are also adjusted beneath the social
networks in which we interact within actively. It is a common sense to have in
hand that the sizes of social network we refer for what we want ( Nω ) are greater
than the one shapes what we need ( Nη ), N N ω η >

Need and Wants—the Birth giver to the Consumer Market –

Turn the clock back just a few centuries, and almost no one in any country spent a
significant amount of time or resources on shopping for goods produced far from
home. Before the Industrial Revolution – that is, before the late 18th century in
England, or the middle of the 19th century in the rest of Western Europe and North
America – the vast majority of each country's population lived in rural areas and
worked in agriculture. Their clothing and household possessions were extremely
limited by today's standards and were typically made by household members or by
artisans from the same village. Fashions, technological change, and social pressure
did not drive people constantly to make new purchases; rather, individual material
goods were used, with repairs if needed, for decades. Major items such as winter
coats were expected to last a lifetime and more and were often passed from one
generation to the next. A small elite, of course, had long enjoyed higher
consumption standards and habitually bought luxury goods and services. Elite
consumption created employment for small numbers of artisans and merchants,
often clustered around the courts and trading centers of each country. However,
purchases by the elite were not large enough to transform a predominantly agrarian
economy. Rather, elite consumption depended on the existence of agriculture,
since upper-class incomes were directly or indirectly derived from rents, taxes, or
other payments extracted from rural areas. The Industrial Revolution clearly
transformed production. It is less obvious, but equally true, that it transformed
consumption. Large-scale industrialization began in the British textile industry; the
amount of cotton used in that industry rose from less than 3 million pounds in 1760
to more than 360 million pounds annually in the 1830s. Within one lifetime, that is
to say, the production of textiles in Britain was multiplied more than 100-fold.
Luxury consumption by the English upper class did not grow nearly that rapidly.
Who, then, bought and used the vast outpouring of cloth? In the early 19th century,
roughly two-thirds of the increased output was sold to other countries around the
world. Much of it went to less developed areas such as India, which was rapidly
becoming a British colony (and where the British conquest was followed by the
destruction of India's formerly thriving textile industry), and to the newly
independent states of Latin America, where British merchants displaced the earlier
commercial connections to Spain and Portugal. There were limits, however, to the
possibility of growth through expansion into foreign markets. As other industries
followed textiles, and other countries followed Britain's example of
industrialization, much of the growing output was inevitably sold at home or to
other relatively developed countries. Thus mass production required mass
consumption. (Even when two-thirds of England's burgeoning textile output was
sold abroad, the domestic absorption of the remaining one-third involved sweeping
changes in English patterns of consumption.) Over the course of the 19th century,
both the growing middle class and the working class became consuming classes as
well.

Bibliography –
Sassatelli, Roberta Consumer Culture, History, Theory and Politics . London:
Sage, 2007. Slater, Don “Consumer Culture and the Politics of Need.”
Chap. 3 in Buy This Book: Studies in Advertising and Consumption , edited by
Mica Nava, ed. , Andrew Blake, ed. , Ian MacRury, ed. , and Barry Ritchards, ed. .
London: Routledge, 1997.
Slater, Don “Needs/Wants.” In Core Sociological Dichotomies, edited by Chris
Jenks, ed. , p. 315–328. London: Sage, 1998.
 Rosales, Marta Rodrigues Vilar. "Needs and Wants." Encyclopedia of
Consumer Culture. 2011. SAGE Publications. 9 Oct. 2011.

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• K.C. Gopalkrishnan and Ramdas, Eastern co, (13th Edition, 2003)

• Paul A. Samuelson & William D. Nordhaus, Tata McGraw Hill, (11th

Edition, 2011)

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(12th Edition, 2006)

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