Problemi Ekonomiki (Dec 2017)
Humanization and Optimization of the Structure of Human Needs in the Context of Globalization
Abstract
Holistic harmonious development of a person depends on the quantity and quality of the needs being met. A vector of social and economic development aimed at maximizing rather than harmonious satisfaction of needs destroys the holistic human reproduction, turns a person into a consumer. The article is dedicated to the issue of humanizing the system of needs and optimizing its structure, which expand the conditions for holistic human development. The modern transformation of the structure of needs, which takes place in the context of globalization, occurs under the stringent pressure of many objective and subjective factors that sometimes have a multidirectional and contradictory impact on the system of needs. Needs are in the state of movement, development, expansion; the structure of needs is complex, multilevel, hierarchical. An important task for economic practice is the creation of mechanisms for external and internal restriction of excessive needs, formation of effective social norms of personal consumption. The search for a new vector of civilized socio-economic development should be oriented toward such structural changes in the system of human needs that will be formed under the influence of humanization, which ensures the balance of structural elements. The progress of humanity is not confined to the restriction of needs of a person, it is associated with the development of his/her abilities, with such dynamic and structural changes in the system of needs that contribute to the development and realization of abilities of a person. Among the main directions of the transformation of the structure of human needs in the context of the spread of the contradictory impact of globalization there can be separately singled out the acceleration of the quantitative dynamics of the growth of needs, changes in their quality, improvement of the forms and methods for their satisfaction; growth of interethnic and intra-national gaps in the volume and structure of needs; institutionalization of personal consumption and its transformation into a factor of economic growth; identification of demand as the leading factor in building social identity.
