Maslow/Rosenberg

["Gregoire de Nowell (ci-devant)" <GN842@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Paul never ceases to amaze me.  Maslow's typology is apropos but
it can get hairy in the fine details.  Thus if I need 2k calories
a day I can make do on raw potatoes but I can also eat chocolate
croissants, and if society has equal capaity to make both I don't
know if it's a d need or a b-need.

(the croissant, that is)

The d-b issue also comes up with someting like transporation.  You
don't "need" an automobile the way you "need" bread, but as welfare
"reformers" are finding out, one of the major obstacles to getting
people to work is physically GETTING them to work.  Once the physical
infrastructure of society is predicated on a car, the "need hierarchy"
may change.

All of which is to say that "needs" to some extent reflect power
relations, both as a matter of class and distribution, and also
as power relations affect the physical construction of society.

Greg Nowell