We are confused about the difference between needs and wants.

Children need loving, attentive parents.

They may want their own personal computer, a mountain bike, every CD the Backstreet Boys have made, a complete collection of Beanie Babies, a television in their bedroom. They may whine, ``I NEED it.'' They may tell you, quite correctly, that everyone else they know has one.

We need oxygen, food, sleep, shelter, friends, family and a relationship with something larger than self. And children need adults to love and guide them. No one actually needs much of anything else.

We may want, but we don't need.

You wouldn't know that in America, where that old praise-phrase ``land of opportunity,'' now translates as a television in every room broadcasting reasons to buy and a mall on every corner, open early, closing late.

The Center for a New American Dream found, in a July survey on …