Wants vs. Needs

It is not uncommon to hear the words “I need”. Many times I’ve been in the middle of a conversation, making a plan, or listing things I’d like to do, and someone comes out with some variation of the phrase “We want much, but we need very little.” The fact that people continually make this statement is, I feel, a problem. One which has plagued the English language for far too long. My reply to them at this point is usually something along the lines of “If you want me to cook you this omelette, then I’m going to need a damn frying pan.”

A want is a goal, a desire, or an objective to be reached, whereas a need is something which is required to complete a task, or reach an objective. I want to eat an omelette, so I need eggs. I want to have a new phone, so I need the money to buy it. I want to keep on living, so I need food, water, and oxygen. If I want to live comfortably, then I also need shelter from the elements, and maybe the occasional conversation with a close friend.

The whole idea of limiting the word need to our basic necessities of life is not an issue of grammar, but of poetry. Someone could say in a song “I need you like I need to breathe”, and they are making a poetic simile in which the beloved takes on the characteristics of a basic necessity. From there someone may say “I don’t just want you, I need you!”. This is the essence of the problem. Any time you add just or only to a sentence, you’re devaluing something, usually in comparison to something else. Think of the phrase “He’s only a lad”, or “It’s just a scratch”.

Wants have become devalued for the sake of needs, and it’s a misuse of the language. Wants supersede needs, not the other way around. In order to need something, you have to have a goal and requirements to be met along the way. Don’t let yourself think that necessities of life are any different. Life, in this case, is a want. You have to want to live in order to need food, water, and air. It is true that your body will go on wanting these things, even when your mind doesn’t, but that doesn’t mean you can’t decide to go without. People who want death can, and sometimes do, commit suicide, God rest their souls. Life is the absolute want. Without wanting that, you can’t need anything.

Let me put this another way. People have been trained to think that want and need are different degrees of the same thing. They have been taught that a need is primal, and a want is a luxury. I’m letting you know that these two words mean completely different things. A want is the prime thing, the goal, the big shiny treasure at the end. A need is only something which is required to reach the treasure, like finding the hidden switch, the key to the vault, or the magical mcguffin.

I want an omelette, so I need eggs.
I want a heart container, so I need to collect the pieces.
If I want to succeed at this whole blog thing, then I need to update regularly.

So far, so good.

Thanks for reading,


-Step.