Kuala Lampur, Oct. 8 -- "Why can't I have it?"

It is probably a question every parent has heard.

We teach our children that they cannot have everything they want. We encourage them to save their duit raya. We explain that RM50 is more than RM10, and eventually introduce them to the familiar difference between "needs" and "wants".

These are important lessons, and they remain important. But looking at the environment our children are growing up in today, I wonder whether teaching them about money is still enough.

Perhaps there is another question we need to teach them to ask: "Why do I want this?"

For many of us growing up, wanting something often began with seeing it in a shop, watching an advertisement on television or noticing that ...