Do you think Americans are bad at distinguishing between needs and wants?

Very

Yes.

extremely

It all comes down to what it's worth to you.

As long as I wasn't starving, I would sacrifice food for internet access at home.

Detroit water is a special situation, though. Detroit created the situation by allowing people to keep their water without paying their bill. If you do that long enough, people are going to stop paying and adjust their life style accordingly. Basically, Detroit spent so long threatening to cut off water without doing so that people began to assume that they never would. When they finally did, the people went ape-shite because they knew that if they made a big enough stink, they would get their water back while still not paying for it.

Americans have no problem buying the things they want, but expect government to buy them the things they need.

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Europeans are utilitarian and they're poor, unsophisticated and trending towards decline.

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europeans are far from poor.

I agree with the rest. Also a want vs. a need will differ among the population and over time. was a cell phone a need 10 years ago? Probably not. is it a need now? for most of the population yes.

if you look at society as static, you are going to end up being very angry.

I NEED for someone to buy me the things I WANT!

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Europeans are utilitarian and they're poor, unsophisticated and trending towards decline.

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What the frick are you talking about?

It's a tragic irony that capitalism may very well lead to the destruction of free markets in fields like healthcare, as capitalism has made so many non vital goods available to the masses

We are a spoiled country who feels our needs should be free.

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europeans are far from poor.

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In terms of western society, most of them are. Money spent drives an economy, as bad of shape as we're in (our unemployment figures are bogus as the participation rate is piss poor)we've still yet to decline to the level of European countries. Switzerland still retains its economic freeedoms, but mostly Europe is comparably poor. Spain is at 26% unemployment, 50% of germans with full time employment live below the European poverty line, and on and on. Not to mention the shite for brains economic policies (FRANCE is a god damn catastrophe) It is cultural. They see the laborers as being exploited, they see the laborers (not the creators) as the driving force of the economy. they're very necessity driven, thus they spend less money (spending money is kind of important in terms of growing GDP)

I know most people who travel to Europe don't bother going outside the designated areas for tourists (which are far nicer living conditions than the rest of the cities have) so I understand that my saying they're poor is absurd in the minds of almost everyone (and globally speaking it is; however, I don't hold some of the most developed countries to the standard of Uganda.) Europe is trending downwards, and compared to where we are...P-O-O-R. So I admittedly agree they aren't poor in the grand scheme of things, compared to how we have it, there is a massive misconception. We, Americans, would identify such conditions as poverty.

back to the OP, we have a segment of our population that doesn't prioritize (make appropriate tradeoffs) well, but generally speaking our wants and desires have produced the highest standard of living in the history of the world. Show me another country where the poorest of poor is front and center with a big screen tv, xbox, expensive tats, designer nails, and morbidly obese (i.e. more than well fed)


POOR

decidedly less POOR