DIFFERENT BETWEEN NEEDS AND WANT

Needs

Those requirements which are extremely necessary for a human being to live a healthy life called Needs. They are personal, psychological, cultural, social, etc that are important for an organism to survive. Without it, that person will suffer either physically or mentally.

Physical needs: air, water, food, health

Safety needs: shelter, security

Self needs: confidence, independence, respect, education,

Relationship needs: friends, family, love, community

Purpose needs: personal growth, mental growth,

Wants

A want is a choice. A desire which a person may or may not be able to get. Life will continue if a person doesn’t get what he want.

For example, we all need to eat. We need to eat in order to live. But the choice of what to eat leans toward want. We can want pizza for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We can want to eat only fruits and veggies. We can want to eat caviar and expensive steak. Life will go on though, if we don’t get that..

In economics, wants are defined as something that a person would like to possess, either immediately or at a later time. Simply put, wants are the desires that cause business activities to produce such products and services that are demanded by the economy. They are optional, i.e. an individual is going to survive, even if not satisfied. Further, wants may vary from person to person and time to time.

Different between Needs and Wants

The following points are as the difference between needs and wants :

1.     The term ‘needs’ is defined as an individual’s basic requirement that must be fulfilled, in order to survive.

Wants are described as the goods and services, which an individual like to have, as a part of his caprices.

2.     An individual needs are limited while his wants are unlimited.

3.     Needs are something that people must have, in order to live.

On the contrary, wants are something that  people wish to have, so as to add comforts in  life.

4.     Needs represents the necessities while wants indicate desires.

5.     Needs are important for the human being to survive.

As against this, wants are not as important as needs, because a person can live without wants.

6.     Needs are those items, that are required for life and does not change with time.

 As opposed to, wants are those items, that are desired by an individual either right now or in future. Therefore, wants might change over time.

7.     As needs are essential for life, non-fulfillment may lead to illness or even death.

In contrast wants are not essential for living and so non-fulfillment, does not have a great impact on a person’s life, however, disappointment may be there.

With the above discussion, on these two concepts of economics, it concluded that needs and wants are separate forces, that compels actions for satisfaction. If needs are not met on time, the survival of a person is at stake whereas wants are something which a person is craving for, that does not challenge a person’s survival if not satisfied.

So, needs can be distinguished from wants on the basis of their level of importance. Hence, the distinction is between what is required and what is desired.