I don't buy your definition of need and luxury, but I agree that words like 'need', 'desire', and 'want' should be defined a bit more clearly. Yeah, my use of the word 'need' is perhaps a bit vague, but these words are used in a vague sense all the time.
Let's just say that working to produce things you can't afford to buy annoys a lot of people.
I think the discussion has started off topic in that it's about materialism - consumerist-materialism, anyway - in China specifically and the discussion (that I guess I veered off into) is about the consumerist-materialist impulse in China specifically.
If you want to discuss the subject in general terms, by all means start a thread, I'll be happy to kick in my point of view.


Volunteering in Kunming's forgotten 'urban villages'
发布者@Scally: OK, I see - damned hukou restrictions still screwing people.
Volunteering in Kunming's forgotten 'urban villages'
发布者These kids are really poor, or don't get enough to eat (hence, teaching them...to make sandwiches?), or are orphans, or what? Do they go to school, during the normal school year?
Film Review: Paths of the Soul
发布者Compare with the widespread modern idea that good living is merely a matter of being continually entertained.
1920s China through the lens of Joseph Rock: Simao
发布者Lotta cross-border stuff, including Rock.
The National Library in Hanoi is indeed good - I went there too, but had no camera - doubt if they have anything about Rock, though.
1920s China through the lens of Joseph Rock: Simao
发布者@Peter: thanks.