There is a teeny-weeny problem with capitalism: it’s fundamentally flawed.

There, I wrote it. I hope I won’t get thrown in jail.

Something about capitalism (defined as ‘an economic system based on private ownership of capital’) has never sat comfortably with me. It’s not that I reject the idea of private ownership—I don’t—but just not of absolutely everything and anything. You see, I hate waste, and while capitalism’s arch rival communism sets off the same ‘everything and anything’ alarm bells, the unlimited enthusiasm with which capitalism chews through finite resources has had me worried for as long as I can remember.

And therein lies the flaw: limitlessness.

Now you probably want more than just a one-word critique of something so fundamental to our society, and I am happy to expand on my bold and perhaps even heretical statement, but not with thousands of words. ‘More’ is exactly the problem. We have too much, we do too much, and we write far too much: we are overloaded with details and we cannot see our precious, shrinking forests for our few remaining trees. So I am going to focus on a single principle and just leave you to muse on it. Another 186 words should do the trick.

If a bloke eats an unlimited amount of food, he won’t be better off, he’ll be dead. Even if he merely overeats, or eats only junk food, he’ll become ill. This is because the human body has limits—finite needs and capacities—and, accordingly, an optimal consumption rate.

An economy also has limits, but our global mega-economy doesn’t just ignore them, it blatantly demands an impossible-to-sustain year-on-year growth: more consumption next year than this year regardless of all other factors. There is, irrefutably, only a finite amount of natural capital with which to fuel economic activity, and to feed and house and heat and cool all of us busy, busy capitalists. And every year there are millions more capitalists all wanting to sell things that others may or may not need, and that may or may not result in more overall good than harm.

We need discernment, not a free-for-all, and we need to respond to and embrace our limitations, not act as if they don’t exist. The time for us capitalists to rigorously question the quality of our economic activity is long overdue. Let’s have this discussion.

Even simpler than Abraham Maslow’s 5-tier Hierarchy of Needs, and Clayton Alderfer’s 3-part ERG Theory, my Theory of Universal Human Needs has just two types of need: survival and betterment.

Why we do the things we do.

First published January 2005

Notes
In each of the four sectors, the first need is a pre-requisite of the second need.

1, 2. Sufficient physical and mental health, food and water, safety and security, structure and belongingness, love and respect from others, and self-esteem, to be alive and to want to stay alive.

5, 6. How much ‘more’ appears to depend on both our individual personalities and characteristics (nature) and our experiences and environment (nurture).

There are more relationships between the eight needs and four goals than can be clearly shown via a two-dimensional (flat) table so I have developed, with the help of graphic designer Jeroen ten Berge, a more sophisticated nautilus diagram of the theory.

Introduction | Article | Nautilus diagram | Translations

Whenever the four survival needs are met, humans attempt to satisfy their four betterment needs, which are the needs we must satisfy to improve the quality of our existence. Satisfying the first two produces transitory happiness. Satisfying the last two produces lasting contentment for the individual and contributes directly to the ‘ongoing survival of the species’.

When perspective and historical context is added to the mix, two important insights come to light. First, our betterment needs ultimately make us better at surviving. And second, without recognition of our ultimate goal (to contribute to the ongoing survival of our species), most of us whose survival needs are met are subsequently left goalless.

Unlike a focused subsistence farmer, appreciative of food eaten and days survived, we wake up each day unsure of what we should be doing. And our natural motivation for ‘better’ — so long as we fail to understand it—is easily manipulated into an insatiable want for ‘more’, which leaves us perpetually dissatisfied and frustrated. We want fame, to be known by many; we need the love and the respect of a few. So how do most of us spend our time? Climbing ladders away from our family and friends.

We over-consume to our everyday detriment, each item devaluing the others we already have so we feel poor and cluttered. And we produce so much unnecessary waste that we are degrading our own (and only) environment. Unchecked, we will push ourselves back to subsistence living.

In other words, we (the wealthiest, most privileged humans of all time) are muddling up our own lives and, increasingly, the lives of others. We have, surely, misread the instructions.

As the Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef points out, human needs are few, finite, and classifiable. It is in the infinite ways that we satisfy those needs that the diversity, wastage, and muddle occurs. But to improve the quality of our ‘satisfiers’ — the disparate acts we perform to satisfy our needs — first requires us to understand our universal needs and the fundamental goal they innately motivate us to achieve: ongoing survival of our truly incredible species.