The tragedy makes no sense

I guess the point of the pool escaped you; the loss of the pool isn't a tragedy to us (or the world), but it is to Clark because he wanted to do something selfless for his family for Christmas with his bonus check.

Holy non-sequitur Batman. What in the actual fuck are you on about?

What does any of this have to do with the fact that he's upset that he isn't getting a pool? Are you suggesting that a person can't be upset about a disappointment because their disappointment is not equivalent to the world's greatest tragedies? That makes no sense.

Drones are murdering children in countries that no one wants to talk about. In yet other countries masses of children die from starvation, similar countries have kids injured in accidents in child labor factories with second-schedule and almost no food for the child-slaves (have fun with your third-world-constructed fireworks when you celebrate your trivial holidays and proud mass murder moments (some people call this kind of conquests 'independence'))..

Massive floodgates of immigration from third world countries are now open so all semblances of 'civilized life' can be utterly destroyed and violence can be rampant in previously super peaceful countries.

Matriarchal fema-fascism is the norm, so even questioning anything about women gets you on some kind of black list where you'll be fired and beaten up, men couldn't be more vilified no matter how innocent they are, as they are these days everywhere in the west at least.

There are useless wars destroying countless lives, homeless people starving on the streets in the cold and rain, freezing to death in the snow and getting heart disease from the scorching sun.

More people are on weird pharma pills than ever in history, be it anti-depressants or anti-psychotics. How about all the incarcerated people rotting in horrible jail conditions with corrupt guards that help the system torture innocent or relatively innocent people in the most oppressing, unfair ways and die violent deaths just because they said the wrong word or were in the wrong place. Listen to 'Larry Lawton''s stories to know how hellish it can be.

I'm sorry you missed the 80's. It was a wonderful, effervescent, silly, head-up-our-collective-asses, time to be alive. This movie is just displaying the zeitgeist of the time. Don't be offended.

"...Matriarchal fema-fascism is the norm, so even questioning anything about women gets you on some kind of black list where you'll be fired and beaten up."'

Okay incel.

and i thought the Theman18s post were gibberish

Sorry you're mad he's not saving the world. He's just trying to provide the best experience for his family.

But here is the thing: No matter how much other people suffer, you will be able to have problems too.
Even if they are "first world problems", they will be enough to make you upset because they affect you.
Also, it is not like the swimming pool itself is Clark's problem.
It is that he put so much stress on himself to give his family a perfect Christmas and had one setback too many.

It is not really a tragedy, and I don't think that anybody called it that either.
But was it enough to be what makes an overstressed middle class father finally snap?
Yep...

Look, first off, it was the 80s, a time when the economy was booming and doing very well. It was a very different (and better) time than what we have now. In fact, Clark said that he'd gotten a Christmas bonus every year, and everyone in his level of the company would get one too. This means the company he worked for was doing well enough to have enough money to pay the developers (I think they said in another film that he worked for a company that researched and developed very good food preservatives and other useful chemicals) extra every Christmas. It's probably why they were able to afford that house, because Clark was so good at his job and no doubt earned enough to give them a comfortable upper middle-class lifestyle.

For his selfish, asshole boss to suddenly cut the Christmas bonuses out that year and not even tell anyone was a seen as so heinous, even his wife and the police chief were appalled. The only reason he even got the "jelly of the month club" certificate is probably because the secretary at the office felt sorry for everyone and did her best to send out the coupons, even if they wouldn't make up for a Christmas bonus.

Another problem is the fact that Clark had been an idiot and bought the pool before even checking that he had enough money to cover the cost. He was counting on the Christmas bonus check to pay the company he'd bought the pool from. This was why some people went bankrupt using credit cards back in the day, because they thought "buy now, pay later" meant "I'll never have to really pay, they're just bluffing," or "No need to worry, I'll eventually have the money to cover my credit card bill."

I know you must have been asleep during the film, but to be stressed out like that, and to have all the problems Clark experienced during Christmas, including annoying relatives, the twinkle lights not working, being trapped in the attic, Cousin Eddie and his family showing up for charity, having Christmas dinner ruined, his tree was burnt by Uncle Louis, etc, and then to have the bonus check not show up was the last straw. I'm amazed the guy didn't explode in a fiery mushroom cloud.