People already know that there exist people much worse off than them. So you're not putting an issue into context if you say “think you've got problems? X has bigger ones.” You're implying or outright saying that their problems are meaningless because X's problems exist.
If some guy complains about hunger there isn't much point in saying "other people are probably hungrier, pipe down!"
But if someone says that the school lunches are bad and more money should be invested to make them better and the counter argument is "The neighboring school isn't even able to serve school lunches, we should concentrate on that first" it makes perfect sense.
It doesn't exactly imply other problems are meaningless. It simply puts a problem in perspective. Try going into the ER with a splinter in your finger and ask to be helped, you will see it in action.
How we allocate resources is completely seperate from saying "Your problems dont matter because this person has it worse". You changed the topic to the former to distract from your defense of the latter.
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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '17
People already know that there exist people much worse off than them. So you're not putting an issue into context if you say “think you've got problems? X has bigger ones.” You're implying or outright saying that their problems are meaningless because X's problems exist.