Everybody wants something. For some people it’s a new car, for other’s its food for the day. If you take a look at the world around us, you’ll see that there are so many different people wanting so many different things in life, it’s amazing. But at the same time it’s also eye opening and almost disturbing. So many people on this planet want things that we don’t even think about here in North America. In fact, today, I was sitting in class thinking to myself about what I’d just read in this class, and I realized ‘Wow…I don’t think I’ve ever truly been afraid of not being able to have supper, or worrying about clean water, or left to wonder if I would have shelter for the night.’ Meanwhile people all over the world are going hungry, dying due to lack of clean water, and spending countless nights in the cold, rain, snow, you name it, all because they have nowhere to go. And it really does make you wonder why it’s like that. I can’t really say for sure. In today’s world we’re forced to believe that money is the only thing that will make us happy, and looking at the two models I learned about in geography, there is some validity in that statement. In order to get food, you need money, in order to get money you need a job, in order to get a job you need clothes, shelter, you need to look professional, which will probably mean you need food, which needs money…the cycle goes on and on and on. Nobody can even think about attaining their security need when their physiological needs are screaming to be attended to. I think the other part of why our needs are so different from those of the rest of the world comes into play due to location. North America has been the place to be since the 1800s. Everybody wants what we have, and of course we utilize that fact, to the point where we almost (in my opinion, we totally do) abuse it. We’re ‘privileged’, and because of that, because we have the money, the spare time (we don’t work, we have robots and other countries to do that for us) and the resources to attain almost, if not all of the five needs in Maslow’s hierarchy. This can probably be taken into account through Wallerstein’s economic systems.

In my opinion, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and Wallerstein’s World Systems theory interconnect. I think that the two ideas are very similar and dependent on one another. If you look at the countries of the world, and their position on Wallerstein’s system, and then you examine what “needs” classified by Maslow are being met there, there’s a similarity. The “core” nations and countries are the ones who have the opportunity to begin to self-actualize, and meet the other needs next to basic survival ones. The semi-periphery nations are the ones who only make it to around the middle of Maslow’s hierarchy, with the rare few being capable of climbing a bit higher than that. With lower incomes, and more demand for work than in any other country, social needs are focused on, but personal-psychological needs are still ignored. The periphery countries are the ones in the worst state. They are the countries that are just beginning to urbanize, and agriculture is still a common way of life for many. With an agricultural lifestyle comes plenty of work, with little focus spent on social needs, or personal needs. Basic survival and security needs are focused on daily, and very few people have the opportunity to go further than that.

I think that poverty influences people’s goals and satisfaction levels profusely (but there are some pros, if you scrutinize it enough). Most people in poverty don’t get a chance to even really, truly ponder what their future is going to be like, if things were different. Too many human beings are forced to worry about getting food on the table, or finding a place to sleep at night, or protecting those they love to really worry about what kind of job they’re going to get, or what party they’re going to go to, or what their true purpose is on this planet. This dramatic difference in lifestyles causes a dramatic difference in outlooks, and because of this, goals and needs are obviously going to differ. But at the same time, stress levels in poorer nations are much lower than they are in North America and Europe and ‘core’ countries. We spend our entire lives so wrapped up in petty things, even many of us are too busy to begin to meet the final needs on Maslow’s hierarchy, and in some cases, we’re no better off. But at the same time, if people as privileged as the core-nation-dwellers are don’t want to take the time and effort to self-actualize and enjoy their lives to their fullest potential, they should give the opportunity to someone who wants to, but can’t. They should give it to someone living in the semi-periphery, or periphery countries/nations to use instead.