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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/broccoli_consumer on 2023-08-03 11:35:38.

For context, this last financial year I earned just enough to pay my rent, bills, food, and petrol - but that’s it. No savings, no investments, no holidays; just survival basically. My father - who isn’t ‘rich’ but earns about 3 times what I do - called to check in with how life was going, and I was honest with him.

I explained that I’m upset with the cost of living and worried about how things will go in the future if I don’t secure a better job soon (I’ve been trying for months). I went through my dismay at the likelihood of ever owning a home, my worry being unable to afford repairs or a new car if my old clunker dies on me, and the stress I feel as a man who is unable to provide security and new experiences for my partner (she’s my rock and doesn’t expect these things of me, but it pains me regardless).

He just said “the grass is always greener on the other side” and told me I would have different, possibly worse stressors if I had more money. I asked him what kind of stress he believes he has that I should be grateful I don’t, and his response set me off: “You’re lucky you don’t have to worry about which investments are going to be worthwhile.”

From there the conversation turned into an argument with me accusing him of being entirely out of touch with the reality of the world as most people experience it, and him empathising with a billionaire who lost a loved one saying “wealthy people still have problems”. I told him he couldn’t dare compare my struggle of choosing between adequate food or rent, to his uncertainty of whether his latest investment will pay off.

The call ended pretty quick after that and I was seething over it for hours, likening it to a rich man telling someone who can’t afford to eat that they’re lucky they don’t have to decide between Ferraris. At the end of the day I know he doesn’t mean to upset me and just doesn’t have the same perspective as I do, so AITA?