http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world_countries.htm
In my opinion, as an American, the United States should not be classified as a first-world country. We need to do so much better.
Not just no, but hell no. Read the rest of the linked article. The U.S. is by definition a First World country, and does not share the characteristics you “checked” in any degree comparable to Third World countries.
FYI: I did not mean to check “low utilization of natural resources”.
Not sure if the thread is serious, but by any reasonable measure the United States is a highly advanced, high-standard-of-living, strong-economy country.
The poverty rates you are thinking of is a relative poverty rate based on per capita GDP. Comparing relative poverty rates nation to nation is basically just a proxy for comparing inequality. It’s not a good tool to compare poverty between nations with different poverty lines…
Worldbank, concerned about a measure that was actually meaningful created an international poverty line based on the relative poverty line in the poorest nations. As of 2015 they asses that poverty line as $1.90 per day per person (in 2011 PPP). That line is what the Worldbank and UN tend to use in discussing poverty and poverty fighting initiatives. Yes that’s less than $700 a year.
We do quite a bit better on that test than the countries you want to lump us in with. Basically any household drawing support under some of our poverty fighting government transfer programs (SNAP, Welfare, WIC, etc.) is already above that line. Someone who makes federal minimum wage for one month out of the year vaults over that poverty line.
Very much not a check.
Banana Republic is a popular US store. Maybe they know something we don’t?
The US has declined significantly in the past thirty years. Lot of industry and jobs gone. We’ll never see the prosperity enjoyed by the post WWII baby boomers.
But we aren’t a 3rd world country yet.
I’m not sure it’s that simple. It’s not necessarily even possible to live on $700 a year in America without being homeless. I’d say someone who is homeless is pretty clearly impoverished, even if they are staying with friends or in a shelter (on $700 a year? In America that could barely feed you, let alone provide anything more substantial.)
Disagree. I’ve been in about a hundred third world countries, and this is not one of them.
Aside from economics, one major cultural difference: people in third world countries are polite and considerate and respect people’s dignity, and treat strangers with generosity and hospitality and above all charity. And expect nothing in return.
For another thing, they don’t waste resources. They are mindful of how difficult it is to get things of value, and do not thoughtlessly squander them.
Sorry, this is ridiculous. I’ve been to dozens of Third World countries, and the US isn’t remotely one, by any stretch of the imagination. On a relative basis, the US is far above most Third World countries on any of those measures.
I have to ask, have you ever been to an actual Third World country?:dubious:
People who natter on about America being a Third World country almost never have actually been to a Third World country themselves.
No. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Unless the Russians have nuked the US since I have been there.
The US is a first world country (“the” first world country, by several definitions), but one with a significant fourth world population.
No, it is quite clearly a first world country albeit with a curiously backward view on crime, guns and healthcare.
Echoing the “OP must have never left the US except for the family vacation to Paris” line of thinking.
One might occasionally speak of the US becoming a third-world country, but such an expression is first of all almost always hyperbole, and second of all doesn’t say how long it’ll take for the process of becoming one will take. As of right now, and for the foreseeable future, America is first-world.
It’s a rhetorical question that somehow is also a poll…
No, the US isn’t a third-world country. Not that I think the term “third-world” is very useful any more. I think Developed, Developing and Stagnant / Failed States captures the trichotomy better than the old distinction over political philosophy.
My wife is from the Dominican Republic, and often notes wryly that people here who complain about poverty are unaware of what actual poverty looks like.
Poverty is a reletive term. What constitutes poverty varies in different regions within countries.
If America is a Third World country, there is no First or Second World.
Regards,
Shodan
Yeah. We hardly have a Strong Communist Bloc to play the part of Second World.
Every country could use improvement. Some more than others.