Wants vs. Needs

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I want a lot of things……………happiness (primarily), health, water, food, shelter, security, respect, love, a nice house, a nice car, a nice yacht………………………hang on………did I say yacht?

Wants

Well, I know I WANT a nicer house than my friends and colleagues, and a nicer car, and a prettier wife (I have that already!) and I want to live in a nicer neighborhood than my friends and I really want a very expensive car and a very expensive house and I want to be a member of an exclusive country club, and I want world peace and I want everybody to have as much food as they can eat, and I want everybody to be happy and I want……………

Needs

Okay, you get the point.  I WANT a lot of stuff but (and it’s a big but, riddled with cellulite and trying desperately to defy the laws of gravity………..well, it’s not THAT bad yet!) however, what I want and what I need are two very different things.

Any Country’s Government

Pick a country, any country will do……(there are about 2oo ish to choose from) and think of its government.  NO, a countries government is NOT the country, it’s just a bunch of people who managed to get elected somehow to “govern”.

These people are elected for the WRONG reasons more often than not.  They are elected for what they PROMISE they will GIVE to the voters.  The problem is, they don’t HAVE anything to give to the voters, so they have to TAKE it from somebody else.  Who?  Why, other voters of course!

Wants vs. Needs

There has been a great deal of debate over the years regarding what a government’s role should be, but one thing has always been the underpinning principle, and that is, they are responsible for organizing the protection of the people who are part of that nation.

The Problem

What you should really ask yourself is this: “what else do I vote for when I vote to elect somebody to office?”.  The answer frequently “a lot of things that I DON’T want them involved in!”.

Once they have arranged to make the nation in which you live secure from outsiders, they should make sure that people within the nation DON’T HARM ANYBODY ELSE WITHIN THAT NATION.

After that, they pretty much have nothing left to do.  The problem of course, is that they ALWAYS WANT MORE.

More power, more of your time, more of your money, more of your respect, more of your…..everything.

Why?

The reason for this is simple; they are very insecure people who want power to make themselves feel secure.  The problem with that is, insecure people can NEVER get enough power to make them feel safe.

When any nation’s government is made up of people who are like this, they will offer ANYTHING to keep and increase their power.  They will do this through coercion, threats of force, or force itself.

A nation that votes based in what some other people (the politicians) will get for them, is headed down a very dangerous path.  I hope that the country YOU live in doesn’t find this out the hard way.

In my humble opinion, no country’s government should be in the business of providing ‘wants’.

Luke.

P.S. This is what Ben Franklin had to say about it:

“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.”