Human needs

“ Anyone who speaks the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger to the powers that be” —Amanda Gordon

First published March 25, 2020

Humans needs can be understood in terms of biology and emotion.

We need to breathe, we need to drink, we need to communicate, we need sleep, we need light, we need to move our bodies, we need family, community, education, clothes, safety, shelter and medical care.

That is all humans need to live a healthy rich and rewarding life.

With the economy shut off and with the need to turn it back on urgent for the the well being of so many people. This is a good time to ask what type of economy should be turned back on?

The printing presses are primed and will soon print 2 trillion dollars. A trillion is is a word that we use with no concept of its meaning. We know it to be a big number, the next number after a billion. We know that it contains 12 zeros. But we have no understanding of its weight. The volume it holds. The area it covers.

Decisions will soon be made that will impact our future. Decisions are always made that impact our future. For too long these have been the wrong decisions. They have been decisions that don’t consider human needs.

As the role of government is to improve peoples lives, not to bail out corporations human needs should be the strategic foundation for our governments economic decisions. This is much bigger than deciding what companies and industries to bail out.

While the economy was humming along and destroying everything in it path, it was verboten to speak about the conflict between human needs and consumerism. We spoke instead of climate change, and sustainability acting as if climate change is a technological problem that needed to be solved with two inputs, carbon and temperature. We never questioned the underlying structure of an economy that heated up the earth, polluted water, acidified oceans, caused extinction and makes people sick.

We only need to look at one industry to see the disconnect between our needs and how we live. Mammals need their mothers milk when they are born and after they are weaned only need water. There is a need to protect water, yet we pollute water so casually we accept without a sense of terror and rage that our wells are contaminated and not safe to drink. Yet, flavored drinks unnecessary for human needs fill aisles in our food stores. Stated another way, Coca Cola produces 110 billion single use plastic containers a year to sell you a product that doesn’t satisfy a human need. Coca Cola of course takes no responsibilities for the containers once they sell them. They end up in landfills, littered on the planets surface or in the ocean. Coca Cola is only one company there are of course others companies and industries that don’t serve human needs.

I have no special view into the future. However, I am clear minded that if decisions were to be made based on human needs it would lead to emergent positive change. Given where we are and where we have to go this is not a need, rather it is a necessity.

This is one of the core philosophical principles of Humans Helping Humans. To understand what humans needs are and to also know that our economic system and government do not address human needs.