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.


Yunnan awash in hydropower
发布者And then there are the environmental issues.
Yunnan Tin chairman arrested in 20 million yuan bribery scandal
发布者One down, how many to go?
Can Beijing tame Golden Week travel madness?
发布者Isn't 'renao' great?
Dianchi below national standards, nearby construction may be halted
发布者I still don't know who 'aborigines' means - anybody but Han?
Dianchi below national standards, nearby construction may be halted
发布者Peter99 - I can't follow you - the Mongols threw out the Ming - what 'aborigines' did Mu Ying kill, and why? And I don't understand your last sentence.