I haven’t been to a third world country, but friends of mine who have traveled to them have told me that the poverty they saw in those places is unimaginable to those of us who grew up in places like the U.S., Germany, Canada, etc.
And I’m pretty sure we can all agree that some things we view as problems would be seen as luxuries in those less fortunate countries.
AskReddit users talked about the first world problems they think are third world luxuries.
Let’s see what they had to say…
1. Mental health.
“Needing and having the resources to go to therapy.
Taking care of your mental health is something you can only really do when all your other material needs are met.”
2. Stop your complaining.
“Complaining endlessly about everything from the comfort of your safe house with working plumbing that delivers clean, drinkable water.”
3. Inconvenient.
“Having an electric bill too high becasuse you use a thermostat to keep the inside of your house at the perfect temperature 24/7.”
4. What a waste.
“Just watched a video about how much food and products get thrown into landfills in America because it’s not profitable for companies to keep it and makes more sense to them to destroy it.
We have so much food that we could use to feed so many people but it’s all about money for the greedy b**tards in charge.”
5. Make the air fresher!
“Fresh air not fresh or minty enough that people have to buy essential oil diffuser to make the air smell nicer.”
6. Can’t decide.
“”What take-out are we getting tonight”?
Spends an hour deciding and complaining that you don’t know what to get.”
7. A nice problem to have.
“My mom was complaining the other day about how the deep end of our pool is too cold before Memorial Day and after Labor Day.”
8. Yup.
“Driving to work in your 30k SUV and complaining about having to work 40 hours a week on your thousand dollar iphone.”
9. Home ownership.
“I live in a small house. Not a ‘tiny’ house, but only 1087 square feet.
I live alone, and I OWN this house. So….third world luxury.”
10. All this stuff.
“Not enough room in the refrigerator…. The grocery store doesn’t carry my brand….my microwave burned my popcorn…
The water pressure in the hotel sucks…. I lost all of my money gambling in the casino because the strippers were distracting me.”
11. Over the top.
“Obesity.
All of our food driving the obesity epidemic in most of North America and Europe.
In most countries having that much food at your disposal is a luxury.”
12. Put it into perspective.
“Wife and I went a week without hot water when our water heater broke last month.
Still had running water, just not steaming hot, so we could comfortably stand and do nothing in the shower for 15 minutes.
Really put things in perspectove when I realized how my biggest problem was unattainable to many people around the world.”
13. Wow.
“Expiration dates on food.
I remember an interview of a North Korean defector where she was asked why she chose to flee outside NK despite the propaganda.
She answered that once she saw expiration dates on food sent by an NGO, she knew there was an outside world where people had the luxury to let the food get spoiled.”
14. Seriously…
“A government have to entice people to get a free vaccine by having million dollar lotteries.
Or people that are picky about their vaccine like, “eww, it’s the J&J vaccine, that’s the cheapo one, I want the luxury Pfizer one.”
15. Produce.
“Here’s one that blew my mind: imperfect vegetables.
Imagine a grocery discarding a pepper for having too many bumps or a banana for having to many brown spots.
Meanwhile here I am with my crinkly green peppers and bananas that are 40% brown patch. (But our avocados are like .20cents US).”
16. Analysis paralysis.
“I find buying a loaf of bread to be confusing.
There as are so many option in the grocery store—White, Whole wheat, Rye, Sourdough, Italian, Oatmeal.
It can be hard to choose.”
17. Boo hoo.
“When there’s not enough hot water to take a long shower because the tank in the heater is too small.”
18. We’ve all been there.
“One ply toilet paper.
We’ve all had to use it at work or in some public washroom.
That stuff’s the worst!”
19. Definitely.
“Having to “Tetris” the fridge because you ordered too much food and it’s full of leftovers.”
20. Crazy.
“Shoes with a small tear or smudge.
I always see the European and American ppl have very braand new shoes and clothes it looks like as if they change them every 6 months or so.
I really wonder what is average life of their clothes and shoes.”
21. Well, there’s that.
“When my charger is not long enough to comfortably reach my phone while I lay in bed.”
22. Sad.
“Vaccines.
I have had three cousins from a third world country come visit me in the last month just because they can’t get the Covid vaccine in their country.
Meanwhile, my dad refuses to get vaccinated and is now worried about losing his job over it.”
23. Lucky to have a job.
“Jobs.
Yeah, it sucks having to go into work everyday.
But living in an artificially economically depressed area that has been f**ked over is even worse.”
24. Come on!
“The guys that mow my lawn use a blower to clear debris, but always blow it into my heated inground salt pool.
It happens every week during the summer.”
25. We take this one for granted.
“Taking out the garbage.
In India, there is the garbage collection infrastructure is real bad and there will be big boxes in some streets filled with garbage and they are cleared like once in a couple weeks.
But I gotta give props to all the garbage municipal workers, with what they have there are doing so much more.”
26. Too many options.
“Do you want pizza? No.
Chinese? No.
Salad? No.
Want to go to the grocery store and get stuff no make dinner? No.
Ugghhhh there’s nothing to eatttt!!!!”
Do you think there are first world problems that are third world luxuries?
Tell us what you think in the comments.
Thanks a lot!