CLASSIFICATION OF WANTS

Classification of wants

In Economics, wants are classified into three categories, viz., necessaries, comforts and luxuries.

Necessaries
Necessaries are those which are essential for living. Necessaries are further sub-divided into necessaries for life or existence, necessaries for eflciency and conventional necessaries. Necessaries for life are things necessary to meet the minimum physiological needs for the maintenance of life such as minimum amount of food, clothing and shelter. Man requires something more than the necessities of life to maintain longevity, energyandeflciencyof work, suchas nourishingfood, adequate clothing, cleanwater, comfortabledwelling, education, recreation etc. These are necessaries for eflciency. Conventional necessaries arise either due to pressure of habit or due to compelling social customs and conventions. They are not necessary either for existence or for eflciency. 

Comforts

While necessaries make life possible comforts make life comfortable and satisfying. Comforts are less urgent than necessaries. Tasty and wholesome food, good house, clothes that suit diuerent occasions, audio-visual and labour saving equipments etc .make life more comfortable. 

Luxuries

Luxuries are those wants which are superfluous and expensive. They are not essential for living. Items such as expensive clothing, exclusive motor cars, classy furniture, goods used for vanity etc fall under this category.
        The above categorization is not rigid as a thing which is a comfort or luxury for one person or at one point of time may become a necessity for another person or at another point of time. As all of us are aware, the things which were considered luxuries in the past have become comforts and necessaries today. 

What is Utility?

The concept of utility is used in neo classical Economics to explain the operation of the law of demand. Utility is the want satisfying power of a commodity. It is the expected satisfaction to a consumer when he is willing to spend money on a stock of commodity which has the capacity to satisfy his want. Utility is the anticipated satisfaction by the consumer, and satisfaction is the actual satisfaction derived.

A commodity has utility for a consumer even when it is not consumed .It is a subjective entity and varies from person to person. A commodity has diuerent utility for the same person at diuerent places or at diuerent points of time. It should be noted that utility is not the same thing as usefulness. From the economic standpoint, even harmful things like liquor, may be said to have utility because people want them. Thus, in Economics, the concept of utility is ethically neutral.

Utility hypothesis forms the basis of the theory of consumer behaviour. From time to time, diuerent theories have been advanced to explain consumer behaviour and thus to explain his demand for the product. Two important theories are (i) Marginal Utility Analysis propounded by Marshall, and (ii) Indiuerence Curve Analysis propounded by Hicks and Allen.