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What are things/products called that everyone needs and that people keep using or find a way of using, no matter how much you restrict their use (for example legally, environmentally, culturally etc etc)?

For Example water, food, shelter, drugs (if you are addicted), alcohol, medicines that you need to save someone, fancy new car that you "need" etc etc.

Or any kind of stuff that you determined to get/use no matter the cost or repercussions. All obstacles be dammed.

I know that there is a scientific/fancy word describing these kinds of products and it is not "necessity products" (since those are broadly products that every human needs to survive. The word I'm looking for will have different products for different people and it can change over time), I just do not remember it...

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    Water and food hardly fall into the same category as 'the fancy new car', surely?
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Oct 13, 2022 at 13:45
  • Another single word request with no sentence given to exemplify its intended use....
    – Greybeard
    Commented Oct 13, 2022 at 16:03
  • There are two unrelated aspects here, which are 1) the inelasticity of demand, and 2) the widespread nature of the demand. Do you need both? Your examples include several items that fall into the former category but not the latter - addictive or lifesaving drugs are products that people will obtain no matter what, but they're certainly not items that everyone needs no matter what. You seem to go back and forth, looking for things that "everyone needs" but also suggesting that it may be different from person to person, or that demand may in fact change over time.
    – Nuclear Hoagie
    Commented Oct 13, 2022 at 16:13
  • We don't say necessity products. We just say necessities such as food and water.
    – Lambie
    Commented Oct 13, 2022 at 16:56
  • True. Word "everyone" might be misleading. Maybe better wording would be "what is a product called that people will go great lengths/anything to get? Sentence would be: "there is a reason that people get mad if you ban [the important thing]. It's [the word] product and they will get it. No matter what you say. And yes for whatever reason people buy fancy cars at the costs of their living standards, to others this is stupid but to buyer it's [the word]. And this words categorization is the key. It totally depends what you are looking for at the time. "Staple" is best so far.
    – Considerator
    Commented Oct 14, 2022 at 14:41

4 Answers 4

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You might be looking for the word staple, which has many definitions but the relevant one here is:

a commodity for which the demand is constant

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  • Thank you, this let me found "consumer staples" which are exactly what I was looking for. It also explains why I forgot the word in first place since it is translates quite poorly to my native language
    – Considerator
    Commented Oct 13, 2022 at 14:41
  • Well this is an unsatisfactory answer to the question asked, even if the asker has accepted it. In no reasonable interpretation would drugs or a fancy new car be regarded as staples. They might be regarded as necessities by addicts or petrolheads, but not as staples.
    – High Performance Mark
    Commented Oct 13, 2022 at 15:27
  • @HighPerformanceMark petrolhead, great. Ha ha
    – Lambie
    Commented Oct 13, 2022 at 16:56
  • financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/staple+product They might be IF someone is in right mental state. Some people do whatever to buy the new fancy car, others buy drugs, some buy [insert gaming currency here].... Staple products identifying marker is that it will be one of last things that you cut from your budget, regardless do you Actually need it. Is this kind of behavior closer to addiction then anything else? Absolutely. And here lies the difficulty in this term. It might be different to everyone and it depends on your categorization that is something "staple" ATM.
    – Considerator
    Commented Oct 14, 2022 at 14:34
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Necessities. Cambridge Dictionary defines "necessity" in part as "something that you need, especially in order to live".

A related phrase is "the bare necessities" which means only the essentials that are absolutely required to live - see the above link or the Disney song in The Jungle Book.

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Inelastic, meaning:

Lacking flexibility or resilience; unyielding

Economics: relatively unresponsive to changes, as demand when it fails to increase in proportion to a decrease in price. Compare elastic

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consumer goods or products

products that people buy for their own use:

  • Target markets are fashion and luxury, retail and consumer goods.
  • Her career spans a lifetime of innovation in mobile services and systems technology and later, wireless consumer products and services.

commodity

a substance or product that can be traded, bought, or sold:

  • Other societies, at other times, have simply regarded the elements of nature as commodities: sources of food, fuel, shelter, transport, and wealth.

Source: Cambridge Dictionary

These include non-essential items that are nonetheless destined for consumption.

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