> Its tricky to feel sympathy w/ the lady in this article. ... > and by world standards she's won the lottery to even be alive and living comfortably at her age

> Its tricky to feel sympathy w/ the lady in this article. ... > and by world standards she's won the lottery to even be alive and living comfortably at her age" Why does that need to be trotted out whenever a story about someone's misfortune or bad circumstances is written about? It would be nice if people could just be happy with what they have because they aren't living somewhere else, under worse conditions, but unfortunately that is not the way the majority of people think and in fact it wouldn't necessarily be healthy if they did. [1] I don't wake up in the morning (and don't know anyone who does) and think "wow I am so lucky to have a job and to earn a decent income that slow driver in front of me shouldn't annoy me so much!". If I get a meal that was expensive but was "bad" in a restaurant I don't think "thats fine at least I am alive and can afford to eat here how lucky am I". You compare yourself to your peers and what your expectations are growing up and what you experience. Of course life for anyone alive today is better than almost anytime in human history but people's baseline is today and where they are not another time period or where someone is living in a third world country. [1] Because for only one reason it would also prevent people from striving and trying to make their life better in some way.