What are your real first world problems?
Asked by
Uasal (
1762
)
April 30th, 2015
Are you going to spend the next 50 years paying of student loans for a degree that still hasn’t provided you income?
Have you ever experienced financial hardship due to a medical condition that was no fault of your own?
Did you get evicted when your maternity leave without pay lasted for months because you were on medically necessary bed rest?
Have you ever experienced discrimination at work due to your biological sex, race, gender identity, or sexual preference?
Have you not been on vacation for over five years because your allotted days off are spent when your child has a cold or a day off from school?
Does childcare cost more than your rent?
Have you ever told your child, “Don’t worry, I already ate,” and been lying?
Do you think we discount our real problems when we play the “first world problems” game, forcing ourselves to place our faulty cell phone service or sportsball team loyalty above serious issues that should be addressed?
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23 Answers
It’s one of my biggest annoyances when I’m told – as I have been told by people right here on Fluther – that when I go hungry here, it’s somehow different or better than someone who goes hungry in Somalia or Nicaragua. Or that nearly dying of dehydration on a sidewalk in the summer because I was homeless, couldn’t get water, and no one would stop to help is somehow different from nearly dying of dehydration in the Gobi Desert or the Australian outback. That being forced to live in constant fear of being stopped and harassed, beaten, or shot by police here is different from being forced to live in constant fear of being stopped and harassed, beaten, or shot by police in Burma or Russia.
It is especially galling when crypto-fascist apologists discount any criticism of anything so long as there is a worse case anywhere else on Earth. No one’s abuse, oppression, suffering, or despair can even be acknowledged, much less fixed unless you are the absolute most miserable, hungry, tormented, downtrodden person on the face of the planet. (And that person, wherever she or he is, is already being completely ignored; which is why he or she is that person.)
1. The idea that I may carry the genetic form of Alzheimer’s.
2. The family drama which constantly bubbles just beneath the surface – violence, affairs, money issues, jealousy, depression. All “normal” – but who says “normal” is fun?
3. The knowledge that the dog I grew up with will be dead a couple of years from now.
@SmashTheState
“unless you are the absolute most miserable, hungry, tormented, downtrodden person on the face of the planet.”
I vote for you. 50 years old and still throwing bricks at the police, I can’t think of anyone more miserable than that.
This question seems like a passive-aggressive response to an earlier post on Fluther. That includes your response on that that thread. While I understand your stance on that post, why not avoid responding if it matters so much to you?
First world problems have a wide range when it boils down to the severity factor. It depends upon the circumstances of that individual. The only common denominator is that those of us that live in a first world country are more likely to find help when our plight is made public, be it to friends or a community or nationally.
@Jaxk I am a Wobbly. The official motto of my union is, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” So long as there is a single person who is forced to live under the bootheel of oppression, I will be out there using my entire weight (and it is considerable) to stop the machine. If I should have the good fortune (and the police the poor aim) to live to be 90 I hope I will still have the strength to fling a brick at the face of some donut-gobbling oinker, like so many of those I respect who have come before me, from Piotr Kropotkin to Mother Jones.
I inherited some money, but I lent most of it to my ex girlfriend (after we broke up, by the way) so she could go to a country in the developing world and get a medical treatment that her Medicaid wouldn’t pay for.
I’ve done the ‘I’ve eaten already’ thing. I’m discriminated against all the time because I’m not native born of a least three generations in the country I reside. I don’t bear the police in this country any ill-will because I think they do a good job and I’ve seen the criminal justice system in action here and it is amazingly non-adversarial and seems to work much better.
My biggest first world problem at the moment is being modded on this site every time I criticize the US.
@pied – my response on that last post was something along the lines of “my child can’t bring himself to eat fresh vegetables when I offer them to him because that happens so rarely I may as well be feeding him snails. I simply can’t afford to buy vegetables on a regular basis. I live in the United States and my kid thinks edamame is an alien foodstuff”.
Or it might have been “I had to travel ten miles to pay $1.00 for four gallons of water because the machine closest to my house (a mere six mile round trip) was down.
Avoid responding? When people are making a joke about how easy their life is that they can bitch about petty bullshit and feel justified, then tell me my problems don’t exist?
No.
@Uasal It is understandable how you feel to a certain extent. The challenge for me is that you you posted, “Deleted by me. I hate this game.” Why not answer the question honestly vs. posting that response and turning around and posting a similar question? If you had answered the question as is, it would most likely have garnered a change in the responses than mine would have.
I did post something. Then I deleted it because I felt embarrassed.
Then I thought about it more and decided I was angry. So I posted this question.
I missed the deleted post by @Uasal but to me, a first world problem can be anything from a silly issue (as I put in my Q about the woman’s deleted audiobook) to something more significant like child care costs or student loan debt. I was a bit confused to see this question posted after I just posted something similar.
I am blessed with a big, thick beautiful penis, but this can give the impression that my balls are small.
I find the courage to overcome this through sheer strength of character & the use of concave mirrors.
@cazzie There is something about that scene that used to resonate within me. It has evolved over the years of listening to the factual messages given by those younger than me. What I have found is that there is often a fine line between experience and the current cultural goals.
@cazzie Are you really modded off because you criticize the USA? It seems that most of us do that a fair bit and don’t get modded and a German Jelly has done it consistently for years with no moderation. And we have a full-blooded anarchist on the site. I would be surprised if that were the case.
Yeah, but that’s not the real point of this thread. Point is, I’ve got it pretty great, and as someone who has it pretty great, I should do something more to help those who don’t have it that great.
@cazzie You’re right; that was off-topic.
I have a full time job working 12 hour days. I love my job but the pay is so low that once my bills have been paid I have no money left in my bank account. I live in fear of unexpected bills and usually have to go cap in hand to afford food and fuel for my car.
@OpryLeigh: Your job with the 12 hours days is 12 hours x 3 = 36 hour work week or 12 hours x more days where you have a lot of overtime?
Over 5 days it’s between a 47 and 50 hour week. My 12 hour shifts are 3 of those days.
@OpryLeigh: That’s a long work week. I hope you get overtime pay.
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