Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: A tool to achieving an equitable State

Basic Necessities of life: 

In my words, the Basic Necessities of life are what is needed for man’s daily living irrespective of where one is. These basic necessities also influence how well the break of everyday is anticipated by all humans. From the latter words, it can be concluded that these needs are paramount to life being meaningful, as lack of these – Basic Necessities – lead one to disregarding the usefulness of life and at best, venturing into criminal activities, which puts one’s life in the line. 

What then are these basic necessities of life? While I was still in elementary school – some 18 years ago – I remember being taught several times that the Basic Necessities of life are Food (Water), Clothing and Shelter.

However, a deep analysis of these further probes a handful of questions because worthy living is beyond food (water), shelter and clothing which is why I opine that American Psychologist, Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs paint a perfect picture of what the Basic Necessities of life is all about. This is the basis for this article.

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

Abraham Maslow, the great American Psychologist saw things differently. With the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a pyramid was designed to illustrate the hierarchical fulfillment of human needs in 5 broad stages. In Saul Mcleaod’s view, “Maslow wanted to understand what motivates people. He believed that individuals possess a set of motivational systems unrelated to rewards or unconscious desires. “Maslow stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled, a person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on. 

In as much as the needs and wants of man are insatiable due to their disparity nature, as well as man’s desire for more, I opine that the quest for the satisfaction of these needs is optimised by the nature of the environment (laws/rules and security of the land and the developmental progress of the neighbourhood).

According to Maslow, these needs as indicated in ascending order in the pyramid below are; Physiological, Safety, Social, Esteem and Self Actualisation.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Physiological Needs: This comprises air, food, drink (water), shelter, warmth, sex and sleep. Simply put, they are the Basic “living or existence characteristics of humans”. Thus the physiological needs are those needs that speak to man being optimally alive. 

Safety Needs: These are those needs that are important to the security of man being achieved. These wide ranging component of Safety Needs include; security, law and order on the land, freedom from fear and stability.

Social Needs: The social needs of Maslow are those which speaks to the interrelationship of man with individuals in his family, society, place of work and even the opposite sex, especially romantic relationship.

Esteem Needs: These needs are squarely on the respect of one and the society at large. 

Self Actualisation Needs: This is centred on the peak of one in ones set goals and objectives. Self actualisation needs are what speaks to the success of an individual, having assiduously achieved his or her immediate and long term goals and objectives.

The above needs propounded by Maslow were classified into Basic or (deficiency) and growth needs. The Basic needs comprise the first four needs in the pyramid – in ascending order -, while the growth needs is solely the last item – the self actualisation need. 

Having had a brief of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it is time we employed these needs in speaking to how they can serve as a tool to achieving an equitable State, thereby driving the achievement of the economic significance of a given geographical entity in the global political and economic space. 

The employ of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in driving an equitable economy

In driving equitable economy, the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs would be grouped into 2, the Primary Necessities and the Secondary Necessities.

1. The Primary Necessities:  

As noted earlier, the Physiological needs comprise air, food, drink (water), shelter, warmth, sex and sleep while the Safety needs comprise laws, rules and regulation with the safety and security of an individual achieved. 

However, a key study of these first 2 needs from Maslow Hierarchy of needs exude that the satisfaction of these needs are largely dependent on the laws and rules of the land of the land with respect to safety needs.

In addition, the policies of government (which also fall into laws) on the production activities by the government and the private sector in meeting the availability of food, water and even the air speaks to the sensitivity of government in taking serious business the drive for economic efficiency which speaks to the physiological needs. For example, the one child policy by the Chinese government hugely contributed in the population control of the country, thereby strengthening its economic planning and prosperity drive. 

The safety and physiological needs are therefore grouped into what I call the Primary Necessities.  By the primary necessities, I mean those fundamental activities by the government in making life meaningful to its citizenries and foreigners alike. To this end, the effectiveness of these primary necessities are gauged by the activities of the government or state on the meaningfulness of the Primary Necessities – Physiological and Safety needs – to  the entirety of the populace within the given geographical location, especially a country. 

In order words, the primary necessities are those needs guided by laws which are paramount to driving economic prosperity through the short term spur of individuals in the country. If people are not encouraged to venture into productive activities, then there is a problem in the nation in question because even foreigners would be discouraged from immigrating into the country, thus adversely affecting the Foreign Direct Investment (F.D.I.).

The primary necessities (Physiological and Safety needs) are integral to a country reducing its poverty level, as well as driving the economic prosperity of its citizenries which in the intermediate and long run affects the social, esteem and self actualisation needs.  

2.         The Secondary Necessities:

On the flip, the Social Needs, Esteem and Self Actualisation Needs are what I call the Secondary Necessities. 

By secondary necessities, I mean those needs whose achievement is determined by the efficiency of the primary necessities earlier discussed. 

The social needs, especially in this modern age are met when the primary necessities – Physiological and Safety Needs – are met. The meeting of the esteem and self actualisation needs are also controlled by the primary necessities, as determined, controlled and made efficient by the government.

  Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a tool in driving economic efficiency by the government of a nation

 The absence of laws in a state entails the presence of anarchy and the neglect/inability of government to make the right laws and policies, especially economically sheds light on the level of meaningfulness of Maslow’s pyramid of needs to the populace in the country.   

References:

McLeod, S. A. (2007). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

Wikeipedia (2013). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved from http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow’s_hierarchy_of_needs