While we can debate the details of human needs and goals, it seems to me that some structure such as Maslow's Hierarchy is necessary to understanding economic and social theory (and in most formulations, is assumed without being explicated).
I think it's very important to have a handle on this because this is literally What People Want.
You might also find it helpful to think in terms of an opposing list of What People Don't Want. E.g., in general, people want friendship and affection. They don't want loneliness and alienation.
The general technologist / industrialist / "Capitalist" / Libertarian theory is that applying industrial/technological processes to Nature adds value. The general Eco-Activist theory is that applying industrial/technological processes to Nature subtracts value.
Perhaps the most useful way of looking at it is to say that applying industrial/technological processes to Nature modifies value, changing the human need satisfied from one category to another.
-- Unspoiled Nature satisfies needs for relaxation and spiritual renewal, but you can't eat relaxation and spiritual renewal, or listen to the latest CD on it. On the other hand, we don't live by bread and CDs alone. People deprived of the "higher" on Maslow's table tend to become individually and culturally crazy.
"Maslow also describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was born to do. It is his (sic) "calling". "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." If these needs are not met, the person feels restlessness, on edge, tense, and lacking something.
Lower needs may also produce a restless feeling, but here is it much easier to find the cause. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem the cause is apparent. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.
Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move through the needs to self-actualization is because of the hindrances placed in their way by society. ... On the other hand respectful teaching promotes personal growth. Maslow indicated that educational process could take some of the steps listed below to promote personal growth:"
"If any of us were to list the five most important things in life -- for anyone -- what would they be?
A sense of meaning. A feeling of personal fulfillment. Having people who really care about us.
Having basic necessities -- food, shelter, health. And contentment and peace."
20 Most Asked Questions About the Amish and Mennonites
by Merle Good, Phyllis Pellman Good
Ch 4, p 20
- A page on this site on / The Amish /
"... I will, unless otherwise stated, use the phrase 'quality of life' to refer to the physical quality of life -- to the possibility of enjoying such amenities as a pleasant ambient temperature, good food, freedom from pollution of many sorts (including noise pollution), ease of moving from one place to another, and so on. This emphasis does not deny the importance of nonphysical aspects of living -- the charms of art, music, nature, animal pets, and human friendship, for example."
"What is virtue? Beneficence towards the fellow-creature. Can I call virtue things other than those which do me good? I am needy, you are generous. I am in danger, you help me. I am deceived, you tell me the truth. I am neglected, you console me. I am ignorant, you teach me. Without difficulty I shall call you virtuous."- A page on this site on / Virtue /
"One of the most interesting parts of Fahrenheit 451 is happiness. Faber, Montag's friend who was a former college professor, listed and discussed three things a person needs for true happiness (p. 83). In summary, to be happy, a persons needs:
- quality information with depth
- leisure time to digest the information and think (leisure time, not free time)
- the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two."
"I don't admire all these millionaires-by-30. They're impressive ... but that just means they are people who give a lot of people what they want -- whether it is home runs, touchdowns, or chocolate-chip cookies.
The most marvelous accomplishments are those that people don't particularly want: great scientific discoveries; great experiments in art and literature; great labors in humane endeavors. Such people die poor and unknown very often; sometimes on the cross."
Yours, Isaac Asimov : A Lifetime of Letters
by Isaac Asimov, edited by Stanley Asimov
"... the level of one's socio-economic status has meager effects on one's "sense of well-being" and no significant effect on "satisfaction with life as a whole," to quote researchers Frank Andrews and Stephen Withey.
Psychologist Jonathan Freedman discovered that levels of reported happiness did not vary greatly among the members of different economic classes, with the exception of the very poor, who tended to be less happy than others."
"That's why it's so important to look at citizen action as a form of human happiness. It is a discovery of human happiness to go into this society of ours and grapple with problems and come out looking back and saying, well, the life of a lot of people is better because of what I did.
If people will look at citizen action as a source of joy, I think they are more likely to go into it."
"The twentieth-century Chinese intellectual Hu Shih once said that it is the West that is spiritually superior to the East, not the other way about, precisely because Western capitalism satisfies the material needs of the individual."
-- from the FAQ about the Meaning of Life
copyright 1999 and copyright 2000 by Eliezer S. Yudkowsky.
All rights reserved.
"Greed is not about wanting to make money. All of us want to do that, and companies have to.
In contrast, greed is about being unable to think of anything else."
-- Pages on this site on / Addiction /,
/ Vice /
"We will need a radical shift in the way we run our economy and measure progress. It's time to discard the outdated notion that more economic growth automatically equals greater wellbeing. Mounting evidence suggests that after basic needs have been met, more material growth doesn't make us happier - the UK's economic output has doubled in the past 30 years, but levels of life satisfaction remain unchanged."Caroline Lucas is the Green party MEP for south-east England
We need to change the aims of our economic system, so it places less emphasis on consumption and over-employment, and more on creating meaningful work. A fundamental shift in the primary aim of government - from maximising gross national product to maximising gross national wellbeing - would bring real quality of life improvements as well as moving the UK towards a sustainable future. Immediate rewards would include revitalised local communities, for example, and freeing up more time to spend with friends and family.
The Green party doesn't expect to form the government on May 6. But our manifesto is a programme for sustainable governance. The most effective way to ensure whichever party does form the government takes this programme seriously is to maximise the Green vote and return Westminster's first Green MPs to champion it."