JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
> Surely not all needs are artificial: we need certain minimum dietary requirements; protection from exposure to extremes of heat and cold; and indeed--although the form of these will of course vary--love, attention, and engagement with activities that use and develop our capacities. Marx knew this. See Norman Geras, Marx and Human Nature: Refutation of a Legend; also J. Archbald Petty and (an older book) Vernon Venable on Marx and Human Nature. --jks
>
> Well, OK, but I think that Marx's point is that ALL NEEDS are
> artificial.
>
> Per cent of disposable income spent on food
>
> Year US UK
> 50 20.6 -
> 55 18.8 -
> 60 17.4 35
> 65 15 31.1
> 70 13.8 25
> 75 13.9 22.7
> 80 13.4 20.9
> 85 12 18.4
> 90 11.6 15.8
> 95 10.9 13.9
> 99 - 12.8
>
> According to the Rowntree Trust survey those things that are considered
> necessities has expanded considerably, (a consequence of past
> productivity increases). More than half those interviewed considered the
> following to be necessities: annual holiday away from home (not with
> relatives), television, telephone, deep freezer/fridge freezer, insuring
> home contents, hobby or leisure activity, washing machine (September 11,
> 2000).
>
> In message <s9d9f2c6.009 at mail.ci.detroit.mi.us>, Charles Brown
> <CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us> writes
> >CB: In the case of gym shoes , they add to my rich individuality as a use-value
> >in running and playing sports ( actually a need that persists from the human
> >phase of what Mandel calls primitive natural needs, from the exilharation and
> >pleasure of using muscles to the feel good of better health; although even 200,
> >000 years ago there were historically created needs, probably sports). Getting
> >harassed because my gym shoes are out of style with the Nike type merely
> >detracts and distracts from my fulfillment of my rich individuality.
>
> No, I think running is a small part of the pleasure of running shoes.
> Otherwise, why Nike? To treat such symbolic hierarchies as without
> substance is to become otherworldly.
>
> >
> >In general, not every commodity coming out of the bourgeois cornucopia enhances
> >our rich individualities, and the "keeping up with the Jones" phenomenon often
> >represses our individual potentials.
>
> But 'keeping up with the Joneses' is an important thing for Marx who
> says in Wage Labour and Capital, that a modest home becomes a lowly
> hovel next to a palace. His point is that it is not the absolute
> physical needs htat are important, but one's social needs relative to
> other people - in principle, he means the contrast between profits and
> wages, as expressed in consumption goods.
>
> The idea that one should not want to 'keep up with the Joneses' is
> capitalist ideology.
>
> --
> James Heartfield
>
> Great Expectations: the creative industries in the New Economy
> is available from Design Agenda,
> 4.27 The Beaux Arts Building,
> 10-18 Manor Gardens,
> London, N7 6JT
> Price 7.50 GBP + 1GBP p&p
> >>