'Oh, but there are children starving in Africa...'

A common piece of ageism I see and hear, is that when a young person raises an issue or complains about something, they're met with 'Yeah, but there are children starving in Africa. Get a less privileged perspective on life'. And subsequently they're labelled as a spoiled brat who doesn't know how good he/she has it, and really ought to be smacked and sent to Siberia.

I've gotten treated to this response often enough. I'm 20 which isn't that young, and people still do it.

But guess what, the 'Oh but there are children starving in Africa' argument cuts both ways.

How would it be if next time a parent whines because their healthy, normal, reasonably well behaved son or daughter dyed their hair blue/got a facial piercing without permission/talked back to their douchebag teacher, I responded with 'Hey, cry me a river. There are children starving in Africa'? (I've done that, it doesn't go anywhere.)

How would it be if next time a teacher threw a fit because a young person failed to address them as Miss/Sir or forgot a part of their uniform, that young person responded with 'Grow up, Miss. There are children starving in Africa'?

It's a perfectly valid point...but, wait, older people are different. Older people's problems are real, young people's problems are just tantrums. When an older person whines about a mild headache or a slight annoyance, they're simply a human being complaining about something, maybe rightly, maybe not. When a young person does it, they're a spoilt brat throwing a tantrum. 

Nope, wrong. Sorry. Complaining is complaining whether you're 16 or 60. The only difference is that when you do it at 16, you're dismissed as a self-indulgent brat, when you're 60, people listen and sympathize.