> If they produced things, it would be a waste of resources, because the needs of the entire world are already satisfied. But that's exactly what they do. Do we

> If they produced things, it would be a waste of resources, because the needs of the entire world are already satisfied. But that's exactly what they do. Do we really need fancy clothes, and fancy houses, and fancy food, and TV shows and music? Do we need art? The majority of society’s basic needs have been catered for since ancient Mesopotamia. The only significant innovation we’ve had since then is modern medicine. In regards to needs, everything else since then has just been fine tuning and improving access. The majority of human development since that period has primarily been delivering for wants. The basic premise of your argument here is “how about you do without _everything_ that you want”. This also ignores the fact that no, we cannot make “enough” of only the needs, and just remove all of the wants, because they have the same supply chain. You might argue that I don’t need the spark plugs in my car, but a farmer would certainly need the spark plugs in their tractor.