Our needs are few, our desires are too many

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What is need? It is the things that you cannot live without, such as sunlight, air, moisture, a minimum of food, cloths to fend off the cold, a house to shelter you from the wind and the rain. In our time, basic transportation, computers and telephones have become needs too. Having these necessities is not indulgence.

What is indulgence? It is those luxuries and adornments beyond what is necessary. It is things that only serve to satisfy your vanity or to keep up appearances. Nevertheless, in certain situations and in accordance one's position, one must have a certain level of elegance in order to suit the occasion. That can be counted as a need, but one must have a sense of propriety.

The things we truly need in life are really quite few. From subjective perspective, however, one might really feel that without a certain thing, his life will be empty, forlorn and meaningless. This is a personal value judgment.

So, looking solely at need, we find that the definition is very hazy. When we are considering the difference between need and want, we should do so from a subjective standpoint as well as from an overall, objective standpoint.

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