The Urban Necessity

Urban Jungle II, Jose Babauta

Once upon an era, food, water, and shelter were all we needed. It was enough to survive—it was enough. Then we became donning clothes, and eventually the definition of “basic necessities” changed. I need a house. I need abed. I need a mattress, cooking gear, soap, shoes, and the list goes on and on till, oh, maybe say a decent internet connection. In the everyday struggle to make ends meet, we keep forgetting that luxury things have slowly become necessities, and the definition of luxury has changed too.

There was a time when a telephone was a luxury, a television set was a luxury, getting to shop in an air-conditioned place was a luxury as well. We have changed all that; now everything is accessible provided you know how to earn the big bucks. Is that good? I am not judging, but what with the constantly-changing definitions of necessity, economic planning is a great deal more difficult than, say, two decades ago. It seems we’re caught up in a rat race of sorts: there is too much to pay and too little time to enjoy what you are paying for.

It’s a dangerous cycle where you overwork to earn the dough for an amenity you want, but then you don’t have the time or energy to utilise it. Is time-management the problem? I don’t think so. I believe, instead, that it’s the issue of the ever-depreciating value of money. It’s never enough and even when you are at your definition of “enough,” you need to earn more to better your “standard of living,” rather than stabilising your life.

It’s a loop we know all too well; our generation is certainly stuck in it, and the way things are going, the next generation will be too.