Fulfilling Basic Human Needs Homepage - Left Column

Security involves more than protection against physical violence and intimidation. It requires that the most basic material needs of a population also are met. Economic systems which leave large fractions of society in a continuing struggle for survival produce humanitarian tragedy, deep frustration, and intense hostility toward the more well-off elements of the society – the kind of hostility that can lead to long-lasting, very violent confrontations. 

Meeting human needs, especially in less well-developed societies, is extraordinarily difficult. To be successful, efforts must obviously involve a sophisticated understanding of economics and the more practical skill of the developing workable business models adapted to the culture and the economic situation. They must also be supported, not impleded or prevented, by other governance institutions (for instance government regulations) and be capable of providing the unmet needs within an acceptable length of time. Among the top problems that have to be addressed are:

• Poor People's Economies – Governance models are desperately needed that are capable of nurturing the kind of economic relationships that serve poor people's needs without being undermined by exploitive interests or the failure to develop models that are sustainable and scalable.
• Demographic Pressures -- In many less-developed societies, the challenge of providing sufficient employment opportunities is dramatically complicated by rapid population growth. This causes people to be entering the workforce much faster than others are leaving it. Such demographic pressures require fast economic growth simply to "break even," with even faster growth required to bring down currently high levels of unemployment. Failure to do this can result in intense intergenerational conflicts that can tear societies apart.
• Concentration of Wealth -- The accumulation of wealth gives its possessor the ability to accumulate even more wealth in ways that underlie utterly indefensible levels of inequality and further undermine the position of the disadvantaged. Effective mechanisms to mitigate such maldistribution are critically needed.
• Economic Management -- The success of economic systems (of all types) ultimately depends upon finding a workable balance between the free markets and governmental intervention. Thus the development of more workable economic governance models is critical at all levels from global monetary policy to enforcement of individual contracts and property rights.
• Sustainability -- There are many ways to generate apparently beneficial economic activity over the short term that, over the longer term, will lead to "tragedies of the commons," "overshoot and collapse," or catastrophic destruction of the resource base (for instance despoiling the environment.) Meeting human needs is a long-term challenge that must avoid these pit falls.