Do We Need It or Do We Just THINK We Need It?

[catherine]

I feel like our "needs" have risen exponentially over the past century, and I wonder if we really NEED certain things like:

• Health Insurance: OK that's a biggie, but keep in mind that there was no such thing before the Industrial Age, when employers started offering it as a "perk" Now, everyone HAS to have it--and the taxpayers have to support it--which is fine, but are we entitled to everything? And can't we invest more in prevention than treatment? When no one is taking money out of their pockets to pay for this stuff, the cost will inflate ad infinitum
• A million in the bank before you retire: Another myth, I think. Why? Why is the paradigm save a million and live off the interest and then leave the principal to your heirs? Can't there be another paradigm, like just keep busy and earn your keep as you go?
• Climate control: I went without air conditioning for 4 years while our central unit was broken, and guess what--I didn't melt. And I saved a heap in my electrical bill
• Bottled and canned beverages: it's a staple on the grocery list, but what's wrong with H2O?
• Cable TV: The obvious Not-Real-Need

Any others?

[ApatheticNoMore]

I feel like our "needs" have risen exponentially over the past century, and I wonder if we really NEED certain things like:

[LIST][*]Health Insurance: OK that's a biggie, but keep in mind that there was no such thing before the Industrial Age, when employers started offering it as a "perk" Now, everyone HAS to have it--and the taxpayers have to support it--which is fine, but are we entitled to everything? And can't we invest more in prevention than treatment? When no one is taking money out of their pockets to pay for this stuff, the cost will inflate ad infinitum

yea, but it's kind of a systematic thing. The system is broken. But for an individual to go without health insurance when they could get it is just self-destructive (and illegal now too?). Although I've been doing it, gasp don't want to pay Corba, so expensive especially when I have exactly ZERO EXISTING health problems, but I guess I will .... I know I should bite the bullet and send the check.

[*]Climate control: I went without air conditioning for 4 years while our central unit was broken, and guess what--I didn't melt. And I saved a heap in my electrical bill

yea but there may be systematic problems here too. Newer buildings were built on the assumption of air conditioning, so they weren't built with any eye toward keeping temperatures down. BTW, I have found apartments to almost universally get hotter than houses. Although I've had two apartments that stayed fairly cool and two that were little greenhouses (always hotter than the outside air). So a lot here depends upon the dwelling.

Unnecessary things:

- having a cell phone and a landline ... until again it becomes systematic and the employer expects you to always be available on cell or something (ideally they'd always pay for the cell then too but sometimes things aren't ideal).

- Some vacation destinations are obviously exotic and not needed when you could just travel more locally (but they might be great experiences if you can afford them).

- getting a newer car is unnecessary (drive the old one until it really doesn't make sense to fix it anymore - and I've driven them past this point - but that's not really worth it either, trust me)

[Sad Eyed Lady]

Of the five things you have listed, I have climate control. Yes to canned or bottled beverages on occasion, but that's about it. Of course I am sure I have many other things that I think I need but when it actually comes down to it I could probably live without.

[reader99]

Nobody wants to hear this, but: shampoo. google no 'poo and see how baking soda does just as well. I;ve been washing my hair with baking soda and rinsing with diluted apple cider vinegar for a couple of years now. It's just as good as commercial products and in some ways better; my hair is much less tangly now.
I also use baking soda as deodorant and toothpaste. The cost is a fraction of commercial products and the package is biodegradable.

[reader99]

To some extent, purchasing books. Most of my ordinary light reading is satisfied by library books. But I know people who buy books the library has. I usually only buy books my library system doesn't offer. I don't want to spend the money and I also don't want to have to store them in my tiny condo.

I just had a conversation with someone who considers buying trash bags and paper products an integral part of her normal life. I use grocery bags for trash, dishrags instead of paper towels, and cloth napkins instead of paper. The function is still needed, I just use a far, far lower-cost alternative to meet the same need.

[Zoebird]

*Health Insurance: we don't have it. We live in a country, though, where accident cover is, well, covered. Anything emergent is covered, and pregnancy/birth is covered. we do pay it in our taxes, obviously.

*A million in the bank before you retire: most people on the planet live without ever getting a million dollars. but, there are other factors, too, like co-housing. There can be a point where it isn't wise for an elder to live independently, which means we have to have different ways of relating as family, and thinking about housing, etc.

Of course, I also just like the idea of making money -- and I don't plan on retiring anyway.

*Climate control: here in NZ, most houses are uninsulated and have no central heat/air. some homes have heat pumps, gas fire places, and most have either A. no heat source, or B. wood burning stoves. These are usually in one room of the house, and other rooms go unheated. It's just different here.

In any case, our apartment is small enough that our heat pump takes care of the whole place (same with our new place which is a gas fireplace). The weather here is wet and chilly (but not icy), so it's not absolutely necessary, but it does help to have a heat source at least for a bit in the mornings and evenings (in the coldest months, we might use two hours AM and two hours PM). We just bundle up with extra layers of clothing and have blankets around the house and also layer up the bed. The whole family sleeps together, so it's warm and cozy. we also wear hats at night. it's old school.

*Bottled and canned beverages: we drink water, tea, and coffee -- no canned or bottled beverages here. I do -- on occasion -- make all natural sodas, so we do have those (usually in summer).

*Cable TV Haven't had this for 12 years. absolutely no need.

[Zoebird]

Paper Products: we converted away from paper towels, napkins, etc about 9 years ago. My next endeavor, though I haven't taken the plunge yet, is family cloth (instead of toilet paper). I have friends who do this and it works fine; I'm just not sure I'm ready for that. I did fine with DS (cloth wipes, etc), but I'm not sure I can do that for myself. Might end up doing a combined (some cloth, some tp), and of course, you usually have TP for guests!). So, perhaps I'll make the leap in the next month when we move and I have some t-shirts that are too raggedy to use for anything else.

Trash Bags: since we use re-useable grocery bags, we actually don't have a lot of plastic or paper grocery bags. So, we do buy these. We put out about one 13 gal bag of trash per week. Most of this is compost-able. I wish that our city had composting as part of their recycling! We are looking at a worm farm and/or bokashi bin (likely both), just to off set that aspect of the trash. I think that could take us down to a bag-of-trash per month.

Books: I tend to purchase only those books that I will re-read. Used to purchase just about everything, then sell what I didn't like/want anymore. Now, I library first, and if *i love* the book, I'll buy it. We do have a magazine subscription, though. It's probably not necessary, but we like it.

Baby Stuff: this is actually a pet peeve of mine. I really believe in minimalism for baby (which I wrote about before), and i am *disgusted* by my sister's lifestyle in this regard. I recognize that this is *my* problem. But seriously, who needs *that much stuff* for babies? for *one* baby? Stuff, stuff, and more stuff. wow. just, unnerving. I think people would be so much happier with less in this regard, but I could be wrong.

Office supplies We are a nearly paper-less office. We use about one ream of recycled paper per quarter. Not bad, really. The office used to go through a ream per week (prior practitioners were wasteful). I keep all of my client notes online (our booking system allows this), so I don't even have paper files for them. I have one paper on file for each -- their signatory on the waiver. Most of the other practitioners use computerized or paper notes, but their paper notes are using their own paper, not ours. So that's good. We also use fewer pens, and I recycle our printer ink cartridges (we hardly use any anymore anyway), and of course, we don't really need rubber bands, staples, etc -- though we do have them -- just not many. It's nice to have far fewer office supplies. We only have pens at home. 3 pens, in fact.

[catherine]

Zoebird, you're making me want to move to New Zealand!

[Reyes]

Personal computer

Cell phone

Internet access at home (unless working from home)

[janharker]

But, if we didn't have internet access at home, how would we talk about what we don't need?