SPENT. Learn about Needs and Wants. Activity 3: Needs and Wants. Participants make cards illustrating things they think they need and want to be healthy and happy.
Groups then sort these cards into "wants" and "needs. " The whole group discusses what it means when people’s basic needs are not met and the relation of basic human needs to human rights. 1. Ask participants, working in pairs or small groups, to create 10-20 cards that illustrate the things they think children need and want to be healthy and happy. They may draw these things on the cards or cut out and paste on pictures from magazines. 2. Which things are NEEDS (e.g., essentials for survival, such as food, health care, shelter)? 3. Which pile of cards is bigger? 4. Are all human needs included in the NEEDS list?
5. Is it easy to differentiate between wants and needs? Going Further 1. Are there such things as basic human needs common to everyone everywhere in the world? Are these needs always met? Adaptations 1. 2. 3. 4. Source: Adapted from Margot Brown, Our World, Our Rights, 23-26. Want vs. Need: Basic Economics Part 1.
Need: Basic Economics Part 1: Basic Wants and Needs One of the most basic concepts of economics is want vs. need. What are they exactly? A need is something you have to have, something you can't do without. A want is something you would like to have. These are general categories, of course. You need to eat protein, vitamins, and minerals. Ice cream is a want. OK, we've covered food. Next page > More and a quiz > Page 1, 2 Graphics courtesy of ArtToday. Making you want things. Can you want something if you don't know it exists?
Clever people are always inventing new things, or new versions of old ones. But there's no money to be made out of a new type of shoe, digital camera or something if people don't know they're there to buy. So if you've made a new gadget you want to sell but nobody knows about it, what would you do? You've probably seen and heard many thousands of ads demanding that you must buy this or that 'new and improved' food, drink, soap, DVD player, game... the list goes on and on. And (remember my point about needs and wants?) And didn't know about until you first saw the ad. How un-cool can you get??? You have to keep up or, better still, be one step ahead with your buying.
It takes real courage to buck the trend and not buy things that everybody else has. Then the kids use their 'pester power' (I'm sure you'll know all about that!) Another favourite advertising ploy is to claim that a product is 'time-saving'. And it can't go on. Find a Lesson. A premier source of classroom-tested, Internet-based economic education lesson plans for K-12 teachers and their students.