[htanirs]

I think life is more uncertain than unfair, there are so many variables we do not have control over. A small event can turn life upside down. Fairness is subjective, what one means by fair could be shaped by the environment and how we react to society.

We humans, generally look at people above us in terms of wealth / relationship / fame and think we are not fortunate enough. But there is significant number of folks who can only dream of basic needs. For them we are the fortunate ones.

Also the rich / celebrities / people who we envy, may not have perfect life. They have their own problems. Maybe if we know them completely we may not envy them as much. And they have their own yardstick for what is unfair.

What has worked for me, especially when I feel down, is counting the blessings and being grateful for things I don't have to worry about. Life could be so much more worse. From what I have seen, happiness does not seem to correlate proportionally with wealth / relationship / fame.

IMO, looking at people below us might help to give a balanced perspective. Hope we all find that elusive happiness within.

[brogrammer2018]

> But there is significant number of folks who can only dream of basic needs. For them we are the fortunate ones.

Not true. Your statement is an example of sour grapes:

"In an old fable by Aesop, a hungry fox noticed a bunch of juicy grapes hanging from a vine. After several failed attempts to reach the grapes, the fox gave up and insisted that he didn't want them anyway because they were probably sour.

Nowadays when somebody expresses sour grapes, it means that they put down something simply because they can't have it."

[htanirs]

I did not intend to mean it that way. I agree, we all need to aspire for better life and sour grapes / self pity does not help.

My point is, there are good number of people living below poverty line. Usually poverty has many friends like unemployment, violence, long term health issues (sometimes terminal illness), self inflicted and external abuse. While they also need to aspire to do better, they start their life with a bigger handicap and hostile environment. They need higher amount of courage, conviction and persistence to make things better.

Since the question was based on comparison, wanted to put it in context.