to think we should be grateful for flushing toilets...

[evergreener]

honestly, there is so much trauma and anxiety on these threads, and I don't really understand it. Spending much of time in a part of the world with no sanitation or drinking water, I think that we are incredibly privileged and fortunate in the UK. I'm thankful for access to flushing toilets every day!

yet these threads are so full of misery, inspite of our luxurious life style, abundance of clean water, cheap food, clothes, education, medical care, etc.

People are upset about not wanting a CAT scan, wanting a change or HRT medication, teens being anxious about going to school, wanting a better car, not liking the homework a teacher has set, wanting their partner to get up early with the baby, wanting someone else to unload the dishwasher, worried about what brand of moisturiser to use, and so on and so on

I hope I am not offending too many people by saying this, but we are so rich here, we have so many luxuries, we had such an easy pandemic, we have got everything that most of the worlds population cant even dream of, why is everyone so sad?

“Everybody’s hurt, and mine ain’t the worst, but it’s mine, and I’m feeling it now”

"so do I! but its the extent of the discontent that disturbs me, when we really have got it incredibly good"

You are clearly speaking from a place of privilege. Poverty is a major issue in this country. Many children live in poverty. Certainly it shows your privilege if you think we all have it pretty good - thousands don't.

Which given we are not a "poor" nation is absolutely disgusting.

How many of us were worried last winter that we couldn't afford heating? If you can't afford to switch it on it's irrelevant if you have it.

But why are poorer people so much happier than people in the UK? We have above average standard of living and below average happiness

Because it's RELATIVE poverty that makes people unhappy and causes social issues. People in the UK are in debt and trying to feed their kids from food banks while the Tories (and Labour) and their mates are lighting their cigars with 50 quid notes.

In some parts of the majority world, with a huge divide between rich and poor, people are just as miserable. In places where everyone is poor, there's no sense of unfairness.

It's worth saying that staying in home stays for a while lets you into the everyday trials, tribulations, gripes and worries that staying in a hotel doesn't.

Yes, rich foreign poverty tourists don’t see the reality.

They’re in a little bubble of privilege, so they only see the smiling faces and are only exposed to a fantasy version of a place.

It's not a competition to see who has the right to feel unhappy. You wouldn't say people shouldn't be happy because other people are happier.

well, that's the exact sort of thing I mean - I've lived in through many uk winters without heating, as a child, as an adult and as a parent. I don't consider that a "major issue" and yet you do. The UK counts child poverty statistics entirely relatively - so the statistics will never change, no matter how rich the UK children are as a cohort.

UK children have food, clothing, education, medical care, play opportunities, safe outdoor spaces, - all of them

People spouting stuff like this are usually saying to distract from the fact things are getting worse and are very bad for some people in the UK. At least you have clean water! Except now we don't, we have seas full of shit.

That as well.

That's rubbish. I have lived, worked, and travelled widely. People in poverty and/or dealing with illnesses they can't get treated or selfish husbands are unhappy.

You're spouting cliched Christmas movie nonsense. The kind of thing that poor people have been fed throughout history to keep them from demanding better.

I don't believe for a second that you understand hardship.

"... we had such an easy pandemic ..."

Wow, just wow.

Perhaps you were one on the folk on furlough posting photos of your banana bread on social media and not totally aware of how many other people in the country were suffering, but I do not think you should say that any country, least of all the UK, had an easy pandemic.

well we did. I spent the pandemic in an orphange in a different country so I know what it was like, and I was teaching online to my school in the uk several times a week, so was able to see what was happening to two cohorts of children simultaneously.

So true.

And were the orphans all smiley faced and singing?

Just because parts of the world don't have flushing toilets, that doesn't cancel out other people's problems.
You live in a damp cramped flat, you have disabled children, your partner is abusive and your mother has cancer.
But hey, you have a toilet that flushes!!

TLDR. It's a conversation, not a lecture.

God I'm grumpy today, sorry.

As orphans are because the nice rich schoolteacher might adopt them and take them away to the U.K. if they are extra good, smiley, and fun to be around.

This seems to contradict you

The world's happiest (and least happy) countries (globetrender.com)

thats understandable, im trying a phase of high brow responses when possible. thing is more workload,

Psst.....why are you worried about it?

Weltschmerz/existential ennui - privilege sickness

Totally agree OP. I spent 2 years living in a place where I had to have a shower with a bucket and a bowl and put Dettol in the bucket to kill off the tiny shrimp like things swimming in it!! Strangely, this place was ranked as having the happiest people in the world from Harvard study!

This country to my western eyes was hellmouth - brutal and naked. I rarely had electricity, appalling roads, public transport and no working infrastructure. Police were criminals. If you reported a dead body on the street they would say you did it and arrest you until you paid a bribe, so no one ever did so. Even have a scar on my head from where I was bashed over the head with a gun during a car jacking and as I lay on the ground bleeding with a gun to the back of my head, I prayed to a God I'd never prayed to before, not to spare my life but for the bandits to make it quick and clean because without 999/paramedics I'd die a painful death!

But - as it was so bad, and people had so little - people looked out for one another. Family was everything and everyone was your family. There was no welfare but people would help each other. No one ever went hungry. So many Random acts of pure kindness. Random women would hand me their babies to hold at roadside eateries so they could find a place to go to the toilet. It was what people did and there was never any fear of things like child abduction. I tried explaining our first world problems to people like 'Vandalism' and they simply didn't understand the concept! They had ridiculously tough lives and were certainly not oblivious to their suffering but they had unwavering faith and hope. It was so humbling.

As the bard Biggie once said ‘Mo money mo problems’