SATISFACTION OF HUMAN WANTS

Human wants refers to things that people require in order to live comfortable. These include food, shelter, clothing and luxuries. These wants enable human beings to live a comfortable life and stay alive. For instance, Food keeps the body health and protects it from diseases, while clothing keeps people warm and protects them from cold or rain. Human beings also need shelter for protection from bad weather and harmful animals. Other human wants are for making life comfortable e.g. telephones, television and cars.

CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN WANTS

A careful study of the nature of human wants shows that they have some well marked characteristics. The important ones among these characteristics are explained below:

1. Wants are both complementary and competitive:

Some wants are both complementary and competitive. For example, machinery and labourers. Both are required to run a factory. Thus, they go together. They are complementary to each other. The machines cannot run without labourers. The want for one gives rise to the want for the other. If the industrialist spends more on machines, he has to spend proportionately less on labourers and vice versa. So machines and labourers compete with each other for their employment. Thus, human wants not only compete, they also complement each other.

2. Wants are Complementary:

Some wants are complementary and are felt together. Some commodities are wanted jointly and single article of the group is unable to satisfy the whole want. Very seldom does one commodity by itself satisfy a human want. Usually it calls for something else in addition.   It is a common experience that we want things in groups because the want for them is felt in a group. A single article of the group can not satisfy the whole want of respective groups by itself hence it becomes useless.  It needs other things to complete its use.  

For example, if we want to write a letter, we must buy a pen as well as ink and paper; the pen alone is not enough. A motor car needs petrol and oil before it starts working. When there is want for tea, there is want for sugar, milk and tea leaves. Others include camera and film reels, lamp and oil, shoes need laces. Satisfaction of one want may lead to another want. Thus wants are complementary.

3. Wants are Competitive:

Not only are our wants complementary, they are also competitive. They compete for attention such that each one of them yearns to be satisfied first.One commodity competes with another for our choice. As human wants are unlimited, all of them cannot be satisfied at a time because of limited resources.We all have a limited amount of money at our disposal, whereas we want so many things at the same time. All these wants compete among themselves to be satisfied first. We cannot buy them all. We must, therefore, choose between them by accepting some and rejecting others.

For example, a person may want a television and a wrist watch, books and garments or anything else at the same time. He cannot purchase them all due to limited resources at his disposal. In this case he is to choose between different commodities. The Law of Equi-marginal Utility or the principle of substitution is based on this characteristics of wants. This will best describe the idea of scarcity, choice and opportunity cost.

4. Wants vary in urgency and intensity

All wants are not equally urgent or important and intense. Some wants are more urgent and intense than others. As our resources are limited, the most urgent wants should be given a priority. Hence they are generally satisfied first while others are postponed. For example, the want for food is more important than visiting a film.

5. Human Wants are Unlimited

There is no end to human wants. When one want is satisfied, another crops up to take its place. The never-ending cycle of wants goes on and on. Man’s mind is so made that he is never completely satisfied. He always hankers after more and more goods and services. There is no limit to his wants so long as he breathes. Human wants keep on multiplying.

6. Any Particular want is Satiable

Although human wants in the aggregate are unlimited and all cannot be satisfied at a time, yet it is possible to satisfy a particular want, provided one has the means or resources to satisfy it. If, for instance, a man wants a car he can have it and be satisfied. If he is hungry or thirsty, he takes food or water and the want is satisfied. Likewise, if he feels the want for shoes, he can purchase it and be satisfied because the want for a particular thing diminishes as we have more and more of it.Thus a particular want can be satisfied, if one has money enough for the purpose. This is the basis of the Law of Diminishing Marginal utility.

7. Wants are alternative

There are several ways of satisfying a particular want i.e. particular want may be satisfied in alternative ways. For example, a man can satisfy his hunger by taking bread, rice, fruits or sweets. Similarly, if we feel thirsty, we can have soda, water or yoghurt during the hot season and tea, coffee or hot milk during the cold season. There are different alternatives open to us. When there are alternative ways of satisfying a want, we choose one of them depending upon our income (money at our disposal), prices of alternative ways and our personal taste.

8. Wants vary according to person, place and time

Wants are not always the same, nor the same with everyone. Different people want different things and the same man wants different things at different times and in different places depending on age, sex and situation.Wants differ from person to person. It all depends on environment, attitude and social status of the individual. Two persons may not require the same commodity under the same circumstances. One may prefer a simple living, another may prefer a luxurious life. Some may like sweets and others sour things. Personal wants are different from one another. Wants also differ from place to place.

For example, in hot countries people require light cotton clothes whereas in cold countries, warm clothes are required. Again wants differ from time to time. In winter season, people want to have hot drinks like tea or coffee whereas in summer season, they require more of cold drinks. So wants differ according to person, place and time.

If some wants are repeatedly satisfied, they may turn to become habits. For example, opium eater, or chain smoker etc. Sometimes advertisements help in increasing our wants. The characteristics of human wants become the basis of different laws of consumption.

9. Wants are recurring/repetitive

A particular want will demand to be satisfied over and over again because wants are not fully satiable. Some wants can be satisfied for the time being. After sometimes, these wants may revive. There is recurrence of the wants of basic necessities like food and clothing. This may arise in case of comforts and luxuries. For example, the want for food cannot be satisfied once for all. After sometimes one can again feel hungry and wants food.

Satisfaction of a particular want at any point does not mean the end of it. That want may again be felt after sometime or days. Some wants are thus recurring. When such recurring wants are repeatedly satisfied over a sufficiently long period, they become habits.

10. They are insatiable
Human wants cannot be fully satisfied because they are endless and unlimited in number.

11. They require resources
Human wants requires resources to be satisfied such as money.

12. Some are universal
Most human wants are common to everybody although they vary in quantities.