Needs vs Wants

[LutiChris]

So it seems these past few months i've sorta accepted nihilism
And I came across a friend's post...

I need a job

naturally I was inclined to jump right in and structure my thoughts a little clearly.

A Rant (Click to View)

You want* a job

How will the bills be paid without one?

You don't need to pay the bills

... Yes you do. Otherwise you're homeless.

There is nothing wrong with being homeless, you just have to be smart about it. If you so desire to have a roof over your head there are other ways... besides paying the bills

Internet connection, computer, gaming, ability to make my books. That requires money.

You don't need these things. They are all desires that you want.. there are multiple ways to attain these without money

I'm not discounting all requirements. But in these types of cases you can work around them.

I'll also concede you probably won't like the alternatives.. but nonetheless you are still deciding based on your preferences and aren't forced to stick with it just because you "need" to. there are people out there that don't have jobs and still get what they want without resorting to the typical requirements.

Resorting to crime is one of many ways. some people would find it harder to take that option because needless to say it's against their values or they don't want to risk getting caught. To avoid that scenario one could be a little bit more creative and persuade others to do things for you. For the most part i believe there are a lot of possible ways to achieve your goals. Of course people tend to look for the most efficient and easiest path that largely satisfies their desires and remains contingent upon their preferences. So you still want said thing in order to get that thing and vice versa. Even if you don't like it one can say they would tend to go for something like that or prefer it because it is the best option for them (to meet said desire/goal)

It's not about required norms. I'm on the pursuit of happiness, and happiness requires my books to be made.

if you still want to pursue happiness it doesn't necessarily have to be making your books. you can still find many many ways of achieving this goal. it seems to me it would make more sense that you would value your books above all else because this is a worthy achievement to pursue. Because if the most effective way to make your books is to suffer it could be worth it. if one doesn't want to go explore other routes then that means you don't necessarily care if the books make you happy so long as you are happy or comfortable then that is okay too

i think happiness will naturally come once i achieve my goals. It doesn't necessarily mean it will make me happy so long as I think it is meaningful to pursue.

Say someone values the truth so much but it only makes them miserable. If that is their worthy goal and they are quite persistent to attain it then I think that is fine so long as it doesn't interfere against my goals and preferences. Happiness to me feels over rated. There are different levels of happiness but to me achieving your goals seems much more worthwhile since there's virtually unlimited things to do vs feeling one sort of way with varying degrees of stimulating satisfaction.

if you want to take your position even further we could go all the way down to cause and effect or determinism. then there really is no way we can avoid our actions because they were already made for us.

but i think in the context we really were talking about our desires.. which stem from our wants rather than our needs. every time someone tells me they need this or they need that... I'm usually very skeptical. one can argue they are forced to desire such things because there really is no way of avoiding the laws of physics if we have no free will. But it just doesn't seem pragmatic to me to ignore the agency of individuals.

My question is... do you agree with my stance or am i misguided in my reasoning?

edit) for the sake of being pragmatic i understand why people use "need" loosely