Law of increasing needs

The most important sign of needs is their dynamic, volatile nature. According to
the prominent Ukrainian researcher M.Kh. Bunge, "in the doctrine of needs can be
called the most plausible the following three provisions: 1) the development of
both individuals and entire societies, without the development of needs is not
possible; 2) the development of the individual depends on the harmonious
development of his needs; 3) the development of society involves the
correspondence between the needs of the individuals that make up the public union
"3.

Continuous economic and spiritual progress of society inevitably causes both

quantitative and qualitative growth of needs.

The emergence of new needs is accompanied by constant diversity, multiplication,

enrichment and complication of their structure. The desire to meet the growing
needs is a motivating motive for improving economic activity, increasing the
production of economic goods and improving their quality characteristics.
However, the growth and development of needs always outstrips production
capacity and does not match the level of actual consumption. This reveals the
avant-garde role of needs, which is reflected in the economic law of demand
growth.

The universal economic law of demand growth reflects the intrinsically necessary,
essential and sustainable links between production and consumption, the needs and
the existing capacity to meet them. the emergence of more and more new needs.

Thus, needs and production are contradictory in mutual influence and

interdependence. Consumption needs generate incentives for production.
Production meets existing needs and creates new needs. The decisive influence of
human activity and production on the formation of needs was emphasized by the
famous English economist A. Mar-shall. "Every new step forward," the researcher
noted, "should be seen as a result of the fact that the development of new activities
creates new needs, not that new needs give rise to new activities." 4

The complex mechanism of interaction between needs and production ensures the
continuity of social reproduction (Fig. 2.2). Features of manifestation of the
economic law of increasing needs in modern conditions are associated with the
humanization of socio-economic development as a defining feature of the
formation of post-industrial

society. Improving the structure of needs reflects the process of human

development and facilitates the transition:
- from the dominance of material to the priority development of spiritual needs
associated with creativity, cognition, self-improvement;
- from mass production and consumption to individualization of needs and means
of their satisfaction;
- from the desire to continuously increase consumption to reasonable self-restraint;
- from the physical structure of consumption to the predominance of services in it.

On the example of economically developed countries in the XX century. there are

three stages of development of needs.

The first stage, until the mid-1950s, was dominated by material needs.

The second phase began in the mid-1950s with the transition to a "consumption
economy", when social needs such as household services, education, medicine,
sports, recreation, entertainment, etc. were formed.

The third stage of needs development began to take shape in the 1980s. It will
complete fundamental shifts towards humanitarian needs related to creativity,
spiritual development of the individual.

In the structure of needs, the following fundamental changes occur: the transition
from the dominance of economic needs to the dominance of social;

from meeting basic needs - to meeting needs based on individualized production;

from the physical structure of consumption - to the predominance of its services,
including humanitarian services aimed at the development of the individual.