Tarvitsemilje denotes the degree to which policy, institutions, and economic activity are oriented toward ensuring basic needs—such as housing, food, healthcare, education, and basic security—while limiting or reframing non-essential or aspirational consumption. As a concept, it emphasizes sufficiency, equity, and resilience rather than perpetual growth. It is not an established, standardized index, but a framework for comparing scenarios and guiding normative debates.
In theoretical debates, tarvitsemilje is used to evaluate policies and social contracts, including welfare systems, environmental regulations, and transitions to sustainable production. It serves as a lens for considering how different policy mixes affect access to essentials, the burden of cost of living, and overall societal resilience in the face of shocks such as climate impacts or economic downturns.
Proposed approaches to measuring tarvitsemilje vary. Potential indicators include access to essential goods and services, affordability of basic needs, income adequacy for essential living standards, and environmental intensities relative to provisioning for basics. Some proposals combine these with measures of inequality and social protection coverage.
Critics argue that tarvitsemilje can be vague and culturally contingent, challenging to operationalize across diverse contexts, and prone to normative bias about what counts as “essential.” Proponents acknowledge these issues but contend that the concept remains useful for exploring policy directions toward sufficiency and social resilience.
The term’s precise origins are unclear; it emerged in modern Finnish discourse as a neologism blending elements related to need with a broader policy vocabulary. It has not achieved wide consensus in peer-reviewed literature. See also: sufficiency economy, degrowth, basic needs, sustainable development.