Scarcity

[Leung, H Curtiss [IT]]

Brad DeLong wrote:
>>But as I read it Marx thought that the tendency for capitalism to
>>engender new wants, substituting social needs for natural ones, was a
>>good thing, something he called, without irony, the civilising aspect of
>>capitalist society, the creation of the many sided-individual.
>>
>
>Ah! Now we are into second-order desire: we don't just want stuff, we 
>want new wants too...

Sure.  Why not?

"The urban population think they have escaped from cosmic reality, but there
is no corresponding expansion of their dream life. The reason is clear:
dreams spring from reality and are realized in it....This state of affairs,
arising out of a struggle against poverty, has overshot its ultimate goal -
the liberation of humanity from material cares - and become an omnipresent
obsessive image. Presented with the alternative of love or a garbage
disposal unit, young people of all countries have chosen the garbage
disposal unit. It has become essential to provoke a complete spiritual
transformation by bringing to light forgotten desires and by creating
entirely new ones. And by carrying out an intensive propaganda in favor of
these desires."

Ivan Chtcheglov, "Formulary for a New Urbanism"
--
Curtiss