Do you have first world guilt?

I have a good friend from a third world country... we got on the subject and he told me "This country is GREAT! If you're poor, the government will give you a place to sleep and food to eat! You know what happens in MY country if they sit on the street and beg for food or money? They get LAUGHED AT. They get KICKED. They get beaten, tortured and KILLED. They get told to GET A JOB. There are no food banks that you can go to for bread, there are no hospitals that will treat you even if you don't have money to pay up front, I watched a man bleed to death in the ER because he couldn't pay the nurse up front, and they let him die, and that's normal! But here, you can walk down the street to a charity and they will GIVE YOU food and clothes!"

After some more ranting, he told me what angers him the most is that people are given so much that is not given freely in his country and they STILL complain. I've had friends from third-world countries that wanted to just punch the living hell out of the people who protest about how poor they are and how they are barely getting by, when they spent their lives working 16 hours just to get 1 loaf of bread on the table for their families, while an hour of work here can afford 3.

But what angers a lot of them the most is our definition of poor. There, you have to steal everything you need, if you can. If you get caught, you get killed. There are no job training programs, no welfare, no food stamps, no charities, if you're poor, you're as good as dead. They don't feed you in prison, you have to pay for it. Here, we all at least have food and clothing and shelter. Here, having a shitty trailer, an old TV, old clothes and furniture and eating out of cans is considered poor and I have friends that would have given their souls just to have that in their country.

I guess what I am trying to say is not to be guilty, but to be grateful. There's no reason to feel guilt, but be happy with what you were given and USE it to your advantage, rather than complain or blow a potential future to drugs and stupidity, because that is the first world problem that we should all actually BE ashamed of... blowing a good opportunity because we can afford to.

I don't live in the first world anymore, I'm American :) haha

I think feeling guilty is a waste of emotion. Appreciate it, and if you still feel bad, use what was given to you to make this place better.

Nope, i'd care about that if I were born in 3rd world country. All this "racial guilt" and now it's "first world guilt". da fuck is wrong with you? I'm white, far from being rich but live well enough to afford my shit and proud of what and who I am.

Just a bunch of politically correct bull.

No, I don't feel guilty. I appreciate it. A lot of us have things we take for granted. And compared to other people, some of us really have it all. I think it's normal to feel guilty, but I don't think it's the right feeling.

I don't feel guilty, I just try to do good. Feeling guilty doesn't help anybody.

I find it amazing that people want to help others in need, when a lot of people closer to them such as the homeless are easier to help, yet don't help them.

Yeah, I do. I find it very difficult to care about those people and *not* feel guilty about being born with such a great life :/

My friend uses first world guilt to make her seven year old stop throwing tantrums. It's a little mean but it works.

Yes, and no. I'm always bleating about driving and flying and I feel bad that nobody cares enough to stop doing it. But on the other hand, I've had a bath in my life and not felt guilty about how that water was collected, purified, made potable, just for me to wallow in it and then pour it away without anyone else using it.

fuck no! Different areas of the world have different standards of living. Yeah its crazy I know.

Everyone who answered "I don't give a damn" needs to suffer the worst kind of pain. I'm serious. Fuck you all in the motherfuckin ass. I fucking hate people like you. You don't know sympathy and you need to die in the worst and slowest way possible. If you feel any different from me, then you don't know jack shit about the so-called "3rd world." You're a pathetic excuse for a human being. Burn in hell, if there is one because I fucking HATE the SHIT out of you for even feeling this way. And if you see this message and just laugh to yourself, then you really are just a sack of shit. If you disagree with me, then fuck you too.

Wow :( 10 people answered I don't give a damn.