First World problems

[Masaniello]

When you last mentioned an issue that was distressing you, did someone tell you 'First World problems'? And did you just want to hug that person? That is, very tightly around their neck for about five to ten minutes. I haven't heard the phrase in a while but it is totally dismissive of any difficult issue causing someone grief. As I live in a First World country, I'm not likely to have any problem apart from a First World one. But that's beside the point. Trivialising a person's distress is one of the biggest put-downs I can think of and a major blow to any friendship.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

Too many variables there. When someone is in distress because their heated seats in their luxury automobile stopped working,....first world problems. Yes, it involves bringing the car into the shop, some unplanned inconvenience on your part, perhaps a lot of money to repair, but some perspective here. Some people cannot afford a car,...period. On the other hand, we can all come up with examples of situations more in line with what you're speaking, and I agree, it's not kind.

 

[Misty Avich]

I remember one time I wrote a small rant on Facebook and someone posted a link in the comments to a Wikipedia page explaining about first world problems.

I also hate it when I say something like "oh I can't decide on which movie to watch" and someone else says "I wish that was all I had to worry about". Whenever someone says that I just laugh and say "so do I!"

 

[Masaniello]

Just as an aside, people in Third World have many of the same problems we do in the First World: IT issues, cars not working, terrible traffic snarls and so on.

 

[Jumpinbare]

Just as an aside, people in Third World have many of the same problems we do in the First World: IT issues, cars not working, terrible traffic snarls and so on.

Some of them do anyway

 

[jsilver256]

I agree and at the same time don’t agree.

It’s true that everyone’s problems, even those we’d consider to be in underprivileged countries, are relatively mundane compared to … oh, I don’t know, the Guinea worm which nobody in a developed country will face.

But at the same times, mental health statistics don’t lie. Comfort brings a whole set of abstraction and new problems.

But anyway. IMO, depends on the context. I expect precisely zero people to feel sympathy for my indoor pool heater breaking down even though it personally inconveniences me and they’d be completely justified.

 

[Cryptid]

Just as an aside, people in Third World have many of the same problems we do in the First World: IT issues, cars not working, terrible traffic snarls and so on.

First-world problems are problems that arise from living in an industrialized, wealthy nation ... problems that third-worlders would probably wish they had ... problems that include, but are not limited to:

• Avoiding homeless people because they cannot give you change for a 20-dollar bill.

• Being late to work because the limousine service did not show up on time.

• Clicking the "Refresh" button just as the page you wanted finally starts to load.

• Discovering unexpected items in the bagging area at self-checkouts.

• Eating your favorite biscuit/cracker dry because the Brie or Camembert cheese is too hard.

• Filling your plate at the buffet, and then discovering your favorite food at the far end of the counter.

• Going hungry because the cookies in the airport's first-class lounge are neither gluten-free, GMO-free, fat-free, sugar-free, nor organically produced by fair-wage laborers.

• Having a bad day because the barista spelled your name wrong on the cup.

• Knowing that bottled water is more expensive than gasoline, but you would never willingly drink filtered water from a tap.

• Leaving your phone charger in one of your other cars.

• None of your friends have chargers that you can borrow because you bought the latest smartphone.

• Ordering an "end of the world survival kit" and finding out it is scheduled to arrive on the day after the latest end-of-the-world prediction.

• Paying your gardeners and your housekeeper in cash instead of with a check because you cannot remember their names.

• Restaurant meals that are so large they get cold before can finish them.

• Staying in a hotel where the electrical outlets are 240, and you have no converter for your 120 equipment.

• Taking public transportation during the winter months because the plush leather seats in your car are too cold in the morning.

• Waiting so long in line at a fast-food restaurant that the menu changes, and you can no longer get what you came there for.

• Your iPad stopped working, so now you must use your Kindle, and other people on the plane cannot see your awesome taste in books.

I have compiled a list of 320 such entries.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I find it okay to use the "first world problem" mentality to ground myself if I get too worked up about something that isn't really that big of a problem. I also find it okay if someone I love tells me this to give me some perspective.
However, there's a difference between doing this, and dismissing other people's problems as not relevant.

 

[Misty Avich]

Well most of those above don't apply to me because I'm so poor I can barely afford to live. And don't go ableist on me by saying I should get a second job, that would just burn me out.

What I want is a stress-free life. Not having to work but not having to worry about money either. That is my goal in life but this can only be achieved by winning lots of money on the lottery, which they have made harder to win since adding 10 extra numbers.

 

[Cryptid]

Well most of those above don't apply to me because I'm so poor I can barely afford to live. And don't go ableist on me by saying I should get a second job, that would just burn me out.

What I want is a stress-free life. Not having to work but not having to worry about money either. That is my goal in life but this can only be achieved by winning lots of money on the lottery, which they have made harder to win since adding 10 extra numbers.

Those seem more like personal problems than first-world problems.

 

[Misty Avich]

Seem more like personal problems than first-world problems.

Yes that's what I was talking about earlier in this thread, when someone has personal stresses and then someone else lectures them by saying "there are poor and ill people living in third world countries and all you're worrying about is...." Saying that is like saying "you shouldn't be happy, because there are people much happier than you."

One time I was panicking about becoming homeless one day and someone gave me a lecture implying that homelessness ain't all that bad. Maybe to some people, but I really thrive on security and it's very important to me. I wouldn't be able to survive being homeless. I'm scared of the streets as it is. As much as I dislike living in a dilapidated apartment below a noisy family that does my head in day and night, I still appreciate the fact that I do have a roof over my head with the man I love. And I appreciate him every day.
In fact, no matter how much I stress about having no money, if a rich man asked me to come with him and I'd never have to work again, I'd still refuse because I love my husband so much no matter how poor he is.

 

[Cryptid]

So . . . you seem to be upset that someone would dismiss your problems with a trite response.

Do other people's opinions really matter that much to you?

 

[Misty Avich]

So . . . you seem to be upset that someone would dismiss your problems with a trite response.

Do other people's opinions really matter that much to you?

Well, this wasn't really an opinion. It's not what they say but the way they say it. This person sounded like he was telling me that being homeless is no big deal and expecting me to believe it. I will always be petrified of even the word "homeless", no matter how people try to make it sound less terrifying than what it is. What I'd appreciate more is supportive advice on how to not become homeless, as in resources of financial support entitlement, and reassurance that if I make sure I don't do X, Y or Z then I won't become homeless. Not unsolicited lectures.

 

[Cryptid]

I stopped worrying about other people's opinions long, long ago, and I have been much better off for it.

Those who have dismissed my problems have later discovered that I would dismiss their problems too.

For example: "Oh, so you need a ride to work just like I needed a ride last week. Do you remember what you said to me then? I do, so go take the bus instead."

He did not seem to like being treated the way he treated me, but there was not a damned thing he could do about it.

 

[Misty Avich]

I stopped worrying about other people's opinions long, long ago, and I have been much better off for it.

Those who have dismissed my problems have later discovered that I would dismiss their problems too.

For example: "Oh, so you need a ride to work just like I needed a ride last week. Do you remember what you said to me then? I do, so go take the bus instead."

He did not seem to like being treated the way he treated me, but there was not a damned thing he could do about it.

I'm not sure how to change my mindset like that though, especially that I feel things so intensely and the emotions come before any thoughts. I think it's down to being scared. I don't know what of, just scared. Scared of upsetting people. Scared of people's opinions about me. Scared of conflict. Scared to be alone. I don't know. Can't explain.

 

[Peter Morrison]

First-world problems are problems that arise from living in an industrialized, wealthy nation ... problems that third-worlders would probably wish they had ... problems that include, but are not limited to:

• Avoiding homeless people because they cannot give you change for a 20-dollar bill.

• Being late to work because the limousine service did not show up on time.

• Clicking the "Refresh" button just as the page you wanted finally starts to load.

• Discovering unexpected items in the bagging area at self-checkouts.

• Eating your favorite biscuit/cracker dry because the Brie or Camembert cheese is too hard.

• Filling your plate at the buffet, and then discovering your favorite food at the far end of the counter.

• Going hungry because the cookies in the airport's first-class lounge are neither gluten-free, GMO-free, fat-free, sugar-free, nor organically produced by fair-wage laborers.

• Having a bad day because the barista spelled your name wrong on the cup.

• Knowing that bottled water is more expensive than gasoline, but you would never willingly drink filtered water from a tap.

• Leaving your phone charger in one of your other cars.

• None of your friends have chargers that you can borrow because you bought the latest smartphone.

• Ordering an "end of the world survival kit" and finding out it is scheduled to arrive on the day after the latest end-of-the-world prediction.

• Paying your gardeners and your housekeeper in cash instead of with a check because you cannot remember their names.

• Restaurant meals that are so large they get cold before can finish them.

• Staying in a hotel where the electrical outlets are 240, and you have no converter for your 120 equipment.

• Taking public transportation during the winter months because the plush leather seats in your car are too cold in the morning.

• Waiting so long in line at a fast-food restaurant that the menu changes, and you can no longer get what you came there for.

• Your iPad stopped working, so now you must use your Kindle, and other people on the plane cannot see your awesome taste in books.

I have compiled a list of 320 such entries.

Cryptid, I like your sarcastic humor.

 

[Kayla55]

What is difference between country and city living?

Best part is Elon musk said china has cleanest cities.... But Europe is so dirty they have to clean rivers for Olympics. Poland isn't real nature reserve, covered up pollution.

Hilarious part is climate change complaints in 1st world countries, so much time spend being pro or anti COVID vaccine.
Complaints about where smoke and refinery causing asthma

 

[Kayla55]

Gosh, I struggle because here everybody complains all time, mostly racist.
I'm glad I left western cape, traffic in mornings, long lines at ATM, motor fog makes air bad,
Now there's so many more stars when I look up, people less inclined to use those fertilisers that rain-run off into lagoon. Seriously when last camped there there was weird algae, under water it creates white spirals....I kept thinking if we tip canoe there may be 2 headed shark.
All white people moved there, and it's just not same....even garden route is spoilt by happiest and another shopping mall.

I hope they get less votes so Europeans don't come back to invade, during apartheid it was post-war locust invasion....
Need to make a way to make nature economically stable, and keep things this way. Ha, malevoscent doesn't want them in moors!!! Maybe we can deport them to new Netherlands, and then they'll just settle down and integrate there. The only ones allowed to be left behind are those who respect nature reserve, and rest can swim in EU sespool

And laws to make them switch off wifii when it's night and not in use.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Well, don't let it get you down, if someone says you have first world problems. And don't take it as a personal attack.

When I was 18, I had the opportunity to volunteer at an orphanage in Mexico. It was only about 2 hours south of the border with California, and about 3 hours from my home town where I grew up.

To get there, we had to get off the main highway, and take rutted dirt roads high into the chapparral covered hills. Every now and again, the van would splash through a creek that ran right through the road. We had to stop a few times, to let cowboys or shepherds cross with their animals.

Tin houses with terra cotta roofs, with high walls all around the properties.

We finally got to the orphanage. Day one, the children did a little presentation, en Espanol, teaching us Americans the story of Easter. I watched ardently, as I was not raised a Christian, and this was sort of new to me. I was enchanted by the pantomime.

Then the directors of the orphanage did a presentation to the volunteers about the children who were at the orphanage.

One little toddler girl, her father was abusive. Burned the mother with cigarettes. He abandoned the family. Later the mother gave up the daughter to her aunt to raise her. The mother later died of a heroin overdose.

The aunt was impatient with the girl. She tied her to a chair in the kitchen, and left her there for days. She would feed her meager amounts, here and there. The girl would toilet right in her seat, and her aunt would beat her for it. The little girl got free once, and the aunt beat her with a belt and tied her tighter, with more rope. The little girl languished in the kitchen for weeks, tied to the chair. She even stopped crying, because what's the use?

I don't remember the smaller details, but the neighbor found the girl, and had no money for a hospital. Police in that country didn't care. Somehow missionaries found out and brought the girl to the orphanage.

She has up and down her arms and back, scars from the welts, in the shape of the ropes, up and down her back. She was four years old.

Another little girl, the orphanage directors figure she must have been about two or three. They found her wandering around garbage heaps in Tijuana. All alone. Filthy. Starving. She had been wearing the same shoes so long, that the hospital had to surgically remove her shoes from her feet, because her skin and bones had grown into the shoes.

There were almost two hundred children and teens that I worked with at the orphanage. All with similar origin stories.

Yes, you have first world problems.

 

[Kayla55]

Well, don't let it get you down, if someone says you have first world problems. And don't take it as a personal attack.

When I was 18, I had the opportunity to volunteer at an orphanage in Mexico. It was only about 2 hours south of the border with California, and about 3 hours from my home town where I grew up.

To get there, we had to get off the main highway, and take rutted dirt roads high into the chapparral covered hills. Every now and again, the van would splash through a creek that ran right through the road. We had to stop a few times, to let cowboys or shepherds cross with their animals.

Tin houses with terra cotta roofs, with high walls all around the properties.

We finally got to the orphanage. Day one, the children did a little presentation, en Espanol, teaching us Americans the story of Easter. I watched ardently, as I was not raised a Christian, and this was sort of new to me. I was enchanted by the pantomime.

Then the directors of the orphanage did a presentation to the volunteers about the children who were at the orphanage.

One little toddler girl, her father was abusive. Burned the mother with cigarettes. He abandoned the family. Later the mother gave up the daughter to her aunt to raise her. The mother later died of a heroin overdose.

The aunt was impatient with the girl. She tied her to a chair in the kitchen, and left her there for days. She would feed her meager amounts, here and there. The girl would toilet right in her seat, and her aunt would beat her for it. The little girl got free once, and the aunt beat her with a belt and tied her tighter, with more rope. The little girl languished in the kitchen for weeks, tied to the chair. She even stopped crying, because what's the use?

I don't remember the smaller details, but the neighbor found the girl, and had no money for a hospital. Police in that country didn't care. Somehow missionaries found out and brought the girl to the orphanage.

She has up and down her arms and back, scars from the welts, in the shape of the ropes, up and down her back. She was four years old.

Another little girl, the orphanage directors figure she must have been about two or three. They found her wandering around garbage heaps in Tijuana. All alone. Filthy. Starving. She had been wearing the same shoes so long, that the hospital had to surgically remove her shoes from her feet, because her skin and bones had grown into the shoes.

There were almost two hundred children and teens that I worked with at the orphanage. All with similar origin stories.

Yes, you have first world problems.

In Romanian orphanages in those days the conditions, do nowadays we say youth care centre. One girl had disabilities (old system) and was tied to her bed, now being on spectrum I can really relate in sympathy to situation. It's also not easy to look after someone with special needs.