I disagree with many of you....
Yes, basic needs for survival are food, shelter, water, for basic survival. However, the world has changed vastly since the Great Depression. In 1930, the US was almost evenly divided between rural and urban (45% to 55%), now only about 20% of the population lives in a rural area. Every major city in the US had a good, cheap, public transportation system in the 1930s, this is not true today. What needs are now versus what needs were then are different.
Most people live far from land and can't grow or hunt their own food, so access to food supplies is necessary. Transportation is an absolute necessity, to food supplies and for food supplies. This means roads and railroads are not a want but a need. An individual vehicle may or may not be a want. If it is required for you to do your job, or get to your job, it is not a want. I feel that a job or source of income is a necessity. If you have no source of money, then you can't obtain the things you need to live...food, shelter, water, clothing. Good luck getting someone to provide water to you if you don't pay them. Ditto with food. So stores, and jobs are needs, not wants. I think medical care is a need also. If you have cancer, diabetes, any chronic illness, or even have or want to have children then you need medical care. Even if you don't want to have children, you need medical care, in many cases.
I believe that needs are beyond what many of you define as a need. I have no desire to be reduced to barbarism. Needs require food, clean water, shelter, clothing etc. To get those things you need infrastructure to support clean water and the disposal of waste, transport of food, medicine and clothing, you need work to provide the ability to attain the necessities, you need builders, you need farmers, you need the infrastructure to support farming....the list of needs goes far, far beyond shelter, food and water; unless you do want to return to barbarism.
In much of this country there is no living without the infrastructure to bring you water....try living in most of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, California, or Utah without public water sources...just saying.....
ersonal security, Financial security, Health and well-being Safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts 
