Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. addressed this in a poem titled "Contentment".  The 
first three stanzas (out of many) give the flavor:

> Contentment
> 
> "Man wants but little here below"
> 
>  
> 
> Little I ask; my wants are few;
> 
> I only wish a hut of stone,
> 
> (A very plain brown stone will do,)
> 
> That I may call my own;
> 
> And close at hand is such a one,
> 
> In yonder street that fronts the sun. 
> 
>  
> 
> Plain food is quite enough for me;
> 
> Three courses are as good as ten;
> 
> If Nature can subsist on three,
> 
> Thank Heaven for three. Amen!
> 
> I always thought cold victual nice;
> 
> My choice would be vanilla-ice. 
> 
>  
> 
> I care not much for gold or land;
> 
> Give me a mortgage here and there,
> 
> Some good bank-stock, some note of hand,
> 
> Or trifling railroad share,
> 
> I only ask that Fortune send
> 
> A little more than I shall spend.  


On Aug 11, 2010, at 3:11 PM, Michael Perelman wrote:

> 
> 
> The famous French economist Coco Chanel once observed, once observed, 
> `Luxury is the necessity that begins when necessity ends'.
> 
> 
> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 02:02:28PM -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
>> 
>> On Aug 11, 2010, at 1:54 PM, Jim Devine wrote:
>> 
>>> By the way, mainstream economists do not have a concept of needs. (For
>>> them, "needs" are simply intense subjective wants.)
>> 
>> "there are wants and there are needs
>> and they're two very different things"
>> 
>> - The Long Blondes, "Weekend Without Makeup"
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> 
> -- 
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
> 
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
> michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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