I'm getting kind of the sick of the "It could be worse" fallacy. Look, I'm not saying that people in first-world countries don't complain about stuff too much,* because they do (I should know, I'm one of them). This is just a terrible argument against it. Basically, any time someone responds to a grievance with "At least you're not a starving child in Africa", I die a little inside.
Essentially, what you're saying is "Shut up, things could be a lot worse". But if we continue with that precedent, we'd end up getting nowhere. If you take that stance with personal issues (i.e: "So what if your girlfriend broke up with you?", etc.), then you just come off as a massive cock. Yes, things could be worse. Does that make th situation suck any less? Not really, no. Things could be a lot better too. I don't think I can handle the amount of apathy that would be created if everyone thought that way.
And when you apply it to politics, it just gets embarassing.** "So what if the city is refusing to pay for street repairs? At least the mayor isn't Hitler!" Guess you can't really argue with that.
*I've taken to calling this WPP ("White People Problems") lately.
**Kind of like my inability to spell this word properly. Ever.
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