Want vs Need

Struggling to find the difference between want versus need has been a lifelong issue. I want to be independently wealthy. I need to work. I want to be thinner, I need to exercise. I want to travel the globe, I need to figure out how. These are logical want and need progressions. However, I have noticed society has progressed into "needs" that are definitely NOT needed.

A commercial ran the other day that stated "Tired of missing out on the best things in life because you don't have a flat screen tv?" No one NEEDS a flat screen tv in order to have the best things in life. If your reality requires high definition television in order for it to be the best, you need to reconsider your priorities.

I've mentioned this before in an article about the sense of entitlement going around in the younger generations these days. It appears that it is more pervasive than just the sense of entitlement. Somehow what we want has transferred itself to the what we believe we need category.

Currently, I work with children that are around 10 years of age. Most of these kids are not required to do any chores. Over half of my class of 34 are not even required to make their own beds. It rained unusually hard last week and several of them asked me if they could call their parents to get dry shoes. If  these are the building blocks for the future of society. I fear the world will be crumbling around us in the years to come.
How can this lot distinguish between legitimate wants and needs if everything is taken care of for them? Expectations will continue to run high and what these children believe should just happen will become more and more outrageous as time goes on.

A friend of mine actually said to me "I HAVE to watch the games.", when I suggested she cut her cable in order to lesson household expenses. Apparently the reality of having to buy gas to get to work or food to feed the family was greatly shadowed by the NEED to watch a sporting event. If both the children and the adults who are meant to be guiding the children are caught up in this continued keeping up with the Jones' mentality, how can we possibly move forward?

We need to figure out how to bring boundaries back into reality and actual wants and needs back into society. We want and need better healthcare. We want and need better choices for political offices. We want and need homes in which to live, food to eat, clean air to breathe and an end to social and racial tension. We don't have it. No one NEEDS an iPad,  a Kindle, or a Kardashian....yet somehow they are all here and thriving.

"You can't always get what you want    But if you try sometimes, well you might find
You get what you need." The Rolling Stones were quite correct in this statement. We need to try , not some time, but all the time. That time is Now.