Food, shelter, clothing - basic needs or luxury items?

When I was in school many years ago, the teachers taught us the 3 basic needs - food, shelter and clothing. At that time, poverty, hunger and homelessness were common features in many developing countries. My generation and the previous generations did not take these basic needs lightly. As fortunate as some of us might be at that time, we  were cautious that we could be deprived of these 3 basic needs at anytime. We were then living in an uncertain environment and unpredictable era. In today’s generation, the young ones are taught the same 3 basic needs (ie: food, shelter and clothing) but they treat the needs in a different manner compared to my generation. When “food” is mentioned as basic need, the new generation will ask “what kind of food are we talking about? Japanese food, Korean, Chinese, Italian or French cuisine?” When “clothing” is raised as a basic need, the new generation will ask “what brand of clothing are we referring to? Giorgio Armani, Versace or Donna Karan?” Finally, when “shelter” is put forth as a basic need, the new generation will query about the type of “shelter”, whether it is a bungalow, semi-detached, town house, condominium or an apartment? To my generation, the 3 basic needs mean survivability or the ability to remain alive but for the new generation, the 3 basic needs mean gourmet food, fine dining, luxury brand, high fashion and comfortable lifestyle. Nowadays,”food”, “shelter” and “clothing” are still needed in our life but more for materialistic and ego needs rather than for survivability. Why? Well, I feel one of the main reason is that as the world progresses, we tend to take many things in life for granted. Hunger, homelessness and poverty are no longer as grave as before in many parts of the world, therefore we become complacent and take things for granted. Instead of appreciating these 3 very basic needs as what they are, we try to differentiate ourselves from other people by escalating our lifestyle to a luxurious and comfortable level by enhancing these 3 basic needs to a brand and ego-feeding exercise. I must say that this is not something that is only happening to today’s generation but it happened to me many years ago with a friend of mine in Los Angeles.

This university mate of mine came from a very wealthy family. He drove an expensive car with all the works such as a body kit and expensive tyres. This friend also had a collection of branded and luxury watches. However, I noticed that whenever he go out for lunch or dinner, he would usually eat in cheap places and ordered the cheapest dishes around. Being a food lover, I could never understand his rationale. Here is a person who drives an expensive car, wears branded clothing and has a collection of luxury watches, yet he eats like a “pauper” (please mind my language there). One day I couldn’t hide my curiosity, so I asked him a point blank question - “Why do you eat in cheap places and order cheap food but you don’t mind spending on luxury items?” His answer was simple, “Food cannot last but luxury items can”. In other words, this friend of mine is materialistic and prefer luxury items rather than good food. There is nothing wrong with that, it is just an individual’s preference. However, it does demonstrate to me how a person perceived things. Therefore the debate of “luxury vs needs” continues.....