Maslow and Markets

Robert Reich writes in After-Shock (New York 2010 p. 86):

Much of what people want can’t be bought anyway. In 1943, behavioural scientist Abraham Maslow wrote “A Theory of Human Motivation,” a paper in which he posited a hierarchy of human needs. At the bottom are food, shelter, sex, and sleep (of which the first two are typically purchased, although markets also exist for the latter two). Next comes safety and security (which we normally purchase as well, typically though locks on the doors and taxes that pay for police officers and a system of criminal justice). If we lack any of these basics, we’re forced to spend most of our time trying to remedy what’s missing. But once these fundamental needs are met, according to Maslow, our higher needs cannot be satisfied in the market-indeed, they very act of trying to purchase them robs them of their emotional sustenance. They include “belonging needs, such as love, acceptance, and affiliation, and esteem needs”, by which he meant self-respect, social status, and he approval of others. At the top of Maslow’s pyramid are "self-actualisation” needs - our yearning to find meaning in our lives and to express ourselves.

The non-market sector is important. There are two sub-sectors. In the philanthropic part to non-market sector people give things away to people that need them, because they care or think that they are important. In the other part of the non-market sector people club together to provide goods and services for themselves. These are usually paid for with subscriptions or fees. Goods and services are only provided to those who are members.