I have What You Want, You Have What I Need

We hear often that supply and demand are sufficient to sort out the complexities of human interaction on all levels of life, whether they be commercial or personal. The theory may look good on paper, but it overlooks the fact that sometimes I have what you want, and you have what I need.

If someone has what others want, and others have what that someone needs, the others can use extortion to get what they want, because of the need of that someone. The more acute the need, the easier it will be for  the others to extort what they want, be it money, sex, or time.

Because our needs and wants are never equal, which is, by the way, why inequality is said to be inevitable, there can never be such a thing as an equal trade between equal partners. If there can never be an equal trade, supply and demand are not sufficient; we need another kind of model that ensures that human need does not become an opportunity for extortion. Unless, of course, we like the idea that those who have more have the right to use the need of others to get what they want.

What kind of model would ensure that needs and wants are equalized? A good start would be to recognize that all humans have equal needs, but not equal means. Healthcare, education, food and clean water, are needs all humans share in common, but as the world is right now, most humans have great needs, but lack the means. As a result a large portion of humanity goes hungry, destitute, ill, and illiterate.

The most common objection to the creation of a new model is that people need to help themselves. But since the poverty is created by those who use the needs of others to create inequality, which further creates poverty, the cycle cannot be broken by the poor, it must be unraveled by the wealthy. Economic equality ensures that the needs of some are not greater than the wants of others, rescuing millions from the hands of traffickers, human smugglers, human organ traders, and gives back lost childhoods, lost lives.

The price we pay for not getting everything we want is small compared to the opportunity it creates for others to have what they need to live.