IMO, The US has crumbling infrastructure, corrupt government, dangerous cities, and a lot of homelessness, among so many other problems. Hell, millions of people in the US don’t even have power right now.
What’s the difference?
Third World is an outdated term to refer to neutral countries in the cold war.
Unless there was a sudden dramatic shift in US geopolitical policy it would literally be impossible for it to be considered third world, as the very definition of third world as the definition inherently implies that the country in question is not allied with the US and the broader Western World.
Austria and Switzerland were third world, technically Yugoslavia was too. China became third world for a decent stretch after the sino-soviet split since the other half of the definition relies on not being allied with the Soviets in particular.
The use of third world as an insult for poor countries is a neo-colonial mindset that just takes for granted that anyone who isn’t an outright ally of the west or of the Russians must just be too poor to be worth considering as anything but uneducated people in dirt houses living subsistence lifestyles and who’s main interaction with an apparatus of state is occasionally seeing a humvee loaded up with the child soldiers of this warlord or that drive by.
Because of their GDP. People are incredibly rich there. But one false move and there are no safety nets. You can get bankrupt in an instant.
Add political violence to your list.
It’s obvious you don’t know anything about third world countries and probably have never been to one. I am sure that there are problems in your country to complain about, but coming from an actual third-world country, calling the US third world is just plain naive. The average monthly wage in my country is 25$ a month, not to mention the war and corruption. The US usually ranks 25-50 on world corruption indices. Third world countries rank 100-200. If you think US has corruption. You haven’t seen shit
The US usually ranks 25-50 on world corruption indices. Third world countries rank 100-200.
That would mean that the US is more corrupt. I’m pretty sure that’s not what you meant, so I’m just adding this to help.
I don’t know if it’s a language thing or a regional thing (or just a regular mistake), but “rank” usually means that 1 is the most, 2 is the second most, and 100th would be less corrupt than 1, 2, etc.
Interesting, I didn’t know that. I just remember my country being at the bottom that’s why I said it that way.
I just looked it up, corruption index: https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2023 places most corrupt at the bottom. But I think you are right because corruption ranking should have the most corrupt on the top. I.e you are 1st at corruption
You’re right, they’ve ordered it that way, but they’ve specified that their scale is…
[scored] on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean)
So you weren’t wrong about what you read.
But without that context there, being “in the top ten of a corruption ranking” would usually mean the country is very corrupt, haha
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Yes, the scale they used was just a bit counter-intuitive.
It wasn’t a rank from most to least corrupt, it was more of a “corruption score”, where higher numbers means more corrupt. But they ordered it like ranks, so #1 (least corrupt) would be first.
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Because of very high GDP per capita. It’s another discussion whether GDP is a reliable measure of economy output.
Where are you getting this from?
Because the definition of “first world” is “aligned with the US during the Cold War”, second world was aligned with the USSR, third world were countries not significant on the global stage. It correlates with but does not require poverty or dictatorships.
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Because “first world” means NATO, not having a high standard of living.
Several reasons.
- The US is largely responsible for defining what 1st, 2nd, and 3rd World countries are.
- It has the largest economy in the world.
(I think? That may have gone to China by now. Not sure. But it was true recently.) - Even with everything you said being true. It’s still the wealthiest country in the world, by a large margin. Epically when you compare incomes, lifestyles, and infrastructure to actual 3rd world countries. It’s not even close.
Looks like the USA is still about $10 trillion higher in GDP than China.
Have you ever lived in an actual third world country? Here’s some from my home country for each of your examples:
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Corruption in government is worse and more blatant than what you see in the US. You sometimes have to bribe people just to get some services done. I once had to have a police report done for an auto accident. The officer had the report typed up and they just needed to click the print button. He then said I can pay a quick process “fee” to get the report now, or come back to get the report in 3 days. It was an hour drive to the station, but I didn’t want to pay a bribe.
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Infrastructure is crumbling not just because of lack of maintenance, but because the cheapest materials are used and infrastructure is not built up to code. Every step of the process means a cut for someone’s own pockets, so you end up with a tiny amount compared to what was initially funded.
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Homeless people in the US may still have access to food banks, shelters, charities, etc. Homeless people in thrid world countries may have nothing at all.
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People lose power in the US due to catastrophies. We had random 12 hour blackouts several times a month for no reason at all. Water isn’t potable in the entire country and you have to buy water from filter stations if you want to be safe.
You’ve doctored your first two points to avoid the fact that widespread corruption and crumbling infrastructure are in fact a feature of the USA. That said, obviously we are not a ‘third world’ country, nor a ‘developing or under-developed’ country. We are, instead in our own special category of fucked. We have an absolutely giant economy, but as we have decided politically to disinvest in all of our public sectors, either by privatization or under-funding, we are rapidly becoming dysfunctional. Add to that the huge global reclaiming of surplus value from workers wages to plutocrats profits, and we are, as is obvious, in a political crisis shared by the rest of the neoliberal democracies.
Nope, my first two points did not change from my edits. I never said corruption or crumbling infrastructure isn’t widespread in the US. I just said that not only do both exist in third world countries as well, but it’s even worse.
Love the privilege on display
Americans want to be from a third world country so bad
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https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1629536?v=pdf UN report from 2018 so pre-pandemic.
Did you figure it out yet?
Because the original concept of “ordinal world country” came out of the Cold War:
- “first world” was US/Western affiliated/allied
- “second world” was USSR affiliated/allied
- ”third world” just meant “none of the above” for a very long time
However, since then, understanding of the term in popular discourse has somewhat shifted from geopolitical affiliation to a vague amalgam of socioeconomic status/GDP/“are you a pariah state”/etc.
On a less serious note: the US is really just several dozen 3rd world countries in a trenchcoat essentially relying on (but also politically backstabbing) the economic product of like 5 or 6 states that could be first world economies in their own right
Because of their modern and huge airforce and army, along with all the big tech companies, and Hollywood.
The PR image of America is quite nice. The reality, not that great.
