Want vs. Need

I was talking with some good friends last night and as we were finalizing our plans to solve all of the problems in the world we were reminded of how brilliant Lesslie Newbigin was. He wrote some unbelievably profound critiques of Post-Modernism, Secularism, and Capitalism. He was, without a doubt, one of the most notable theologians of the recent past.

I don't know (I'd have to read more) that Newbigin was completely against all forms of Capitalism, but he diagnosed the problem of capitalism as coming from a shift from "distribution to production." When stuff is produced to fulfill the wants of one segment of society instead of fulfilling the needs of another segment of society simply because it is more profitable, we know that we have a problem; a serious problem.


Newbigin says that with much of Capitalism: "...growth is for the sake of growth and is not determined by any overarching social purpose. And that, of course, is the exact account of the phenomenon which, when it occurs in the human body, is called cancer. In the long perspective of history it would be difficult to deny that the exuberant capitalism of the past 250 years will be diagnosed in the future as a desperately dangerous case of cancer in the body of human society -- if indeed this cancer has not been terminal and there are actually survivors around to make the diagnosis..."

Is that overstating the problem (or understating it)?
Do you have difficulty discerning what is a NEED and what is a WANT in your life?
Have you ever had the desire to simplify your life?