# Agree or Disagree: America is a Third-World Country **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 28, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333 "2016-11-28T23:12:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/61 "2016-11-30T22:05:23Z")
How is “least developed” a worse term than “Third World”? Third World was a term that made sense in the Cold War, but it certainly doesn’t any more. It only seems to make sense because you’re used to it. Or, if you really need a term to mean “poor countries”, what’s wrong with “poor countries”? ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/62 "2016-12-01T00:53:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > How the fuck is the term “least developed” politically correct? Sounds pretty goddamned negative to me, like “least likely to succeed.” Where did you get the idea that the issue is political correctness? The point is, the original meanings of first, second and third world don’t make sense any more. And there have been numerous attempts to redefine these terms, such that the correct answer to “Which World is country X in?” is frequently “fuck knows”. The UN’s definitions of least-developed etc OTOH have criteria for each type and a readily-available updated list. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/63 "2016-12-01T05:52:56Z")
Indeed, “least developed” would be countries like South Sudan, which makes countries like Thailand look like Switzerland development-wise. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/64 "2016-12-01T06:03:39Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Where did you get the idea that the issue is political correctness? **jturr88** ’s last two posts. I think you must have misunderstood my post, as I agree exactly with what you’re saying. I don’t think at all the issue is “political correctness.” It seems the other poster does, which is what I was responding to. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/65 "2016-12-01T06:25:28Z")
Ah sorry ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/66 "2016-12-01T06:25:29Z")
I’ve lived for years in third world countries. US isn’t a third world country. Sheesh, some people need to get out more in the world. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/67 "2016-12-01T06:31:59Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > I’ve lived for years in third world countries. US isn’t a third world country. Sheesh, some people need to get out more in the world. As I said in the following post: > [@R3d\_Anonymous](#): > > I think the point I was trying to make with this question was to expose the following. > > We may be a first-world country, but we are at the bottom of the barrel compared to other first-world countries in a lot of areas. As already mentioned, income inequality and oppressive corporate fatcats are a pretty big problem. We have a pretty high crime rate, and as another poster said, backwards views on healthcare. We’re one of the only first world countries to not have a universal healthcare system and aren’t even attempting to have one, which is pretty shameful given the percent of GDP we spend on healthcare and how countries like India, South Africa, and Mexico are even working towards such a system. Our education system is also mediocre compared to other first-world countries. Our airports and infrastructure are trash. As Donald Trump said, our airports look like they’re from a third-world country. Life-expectancy is down. Outdated puritan societal attitudes galore making us one of the most socially conservative first-world countries. > > Sure we may be better than most third-world countries, but that’s not much to brag out. If you notice, when Republicans boast about how our nation is the “best goddamned country on Earth” they’re comparing us to India, Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Iran, etc as if that’s our competition. The GOP cries so much about government spending, but for some reason they’d rather blow it all in war instead of investing in education, infrastructure, social programs, and jobs. > > We’re literally either the bottom of the barrel of first-world countries or the top of the barrel of third-world countries (which the GOP thinks is a great accomplishment lol). I realize it’s not nearly as bad as your typical Third World country overall, but we do lag considerably behind other First World countries in many areas. Also, take a look at this: [AcehGround - Berita Aceh Terkini dan Terbaru Hari Ini](http://usuncut.com/class-war/america-third-world-country/) ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/68 "2016-12-01T06:40:01Z")
This guy has lived in Third World countries too - look what he has to say: [Banyan Hill Publishing - America's No.1 Source for Profitable Investing](http://thesovereigninvestor.com/us-economy/third-world-america/) ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/69 "2016-12-01T07:52:22Z")
Ha, ha, ha! Did you read the two articles you linked to? Not a single First World country, will still qualify as such, using their criteria! “First World” doesn’t mean every little thing is ideal. All such nations fall down in some regards. I get it, they want to confirm the US, isn’t what it was. But trying to scare people by stretching to say it’s becoming ‘Third World’, is beyond foolish. And a simple review of both articles reveals as much. How bad your health insurance coverage is, how large the copay, if it costs your retirement fund, or how long you wait for a knee replacement are NOT comparable to; the hospital has NO medicine, two of your children will die before they’re five, and there are only three doctors in your entire state. No. America is NOT a third world country. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/70 "2016-12-01T08:06:27Z")
Okay, I’ll concede America is not a Third World country, but the more important point is that it’s still pretty bad compared to other First World countries in many ways as I briefly discussed. And there are even a few things that some Third World countries are doing that are better than us. That’s the point. Call America First World (accurately so), but that doesn’t change the fact that we don’t suck in many ways compared to most First World countries (and even some of the upper tier Second and Third World ones). > **[The Countries With the Highest Quality of Life](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/quality-of-life)** > > Want to be happy and healthy? Live here. If you hit “load more” and notice, there are not many First World countries ranking lower than America when it comes to strictly “quality of life”. It does say America is #4 when it comes to evaluating which country is “best”, but that’s largely due to America’s strong military and economic presence worldwide - doesn’t mean the average Joe’s life in America is also the best. When you isolate for that factor - specifically quality of life in the country - America ranks low among First World Countries. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/71 "2016-12-01T09:44:21Z")
You wanna know why all polls should be public? Two people voted that the US is a second world country. I want to ask those people what they think “second world country” means. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/72 "2016-12-01T12:17:49Z")
The _definiton_ of First-World country is a country allied with the U.S.A. I assume the U.S.A. itself still qualifies, despite the election of the short-fingered sociopath. A Third-World country is, again by definition, a country not allied with the U.S.A., the U.S.S.R. (never mind that it doesn’t exist :smack:) nor Communist China. Therefore OP should ask the Mods to close this thread and replace the descriptor with something sensical. Median per capita (or per-household) purchasing power in the U.S.A. exceeds that of all other major countries except Luxembourg, and perhaps Australia and the Scandinavian countries. The Trump Revolution wasn’t led by the hungry, but by the overfed. OP probably has some complaints about the U.S.A. To his list, whatever it is, I propose that he add “educational standards so low that they lead to nonsensical or incoherent thread titles.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/73 "2016-12-01T13:51:10Z")
“USA least-nice of all the nice places to live, in many of the arbitrary ways that make places nice (but not all of them)” just doesn’t get the page reads, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/74 "2016-12-01T13:57:30Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Least developed? You mean like “Least smart” for retarded children, or “Least svelte” for Obese? Or “least fast” for runners that come in last? How about “Least opulent”, which is exactly the criteria by which they are being judged. Or is the whole thing a politically correct exercise in stroking the underachievers so we don’t harm their self-esteem and inspire them to join that other subset, “Rogue nation”, which stands by itself thumbing its nose at the banking cartels who so single-mindedly try to exploit them? Take it up with the UN and the development agencies. A scale of degrees of development is infinitely more useful to them than a list of which country sucked up to which global bully in the 50s. > [@](#): > > I won’t even comment on how uselessly undescriptive “Global South” is. It’s perfectly useful at its _actual_ job, which _isn’t_ being descriptive - your reaction to it is just confirmation of it doing its job, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/75 "2016-12-01T16:26:46Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > How is “least developed” a worse term than “Third World”? Third World was a term that made sense in the Cold War, but it certainly doesn’t any more. It only seems to make sense because you’re used to it. Or, if you really need a term to mean “poor countries”, what’s wrong with “poor countries”? Please. “Financially Challenged”. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/76 "2016-12-01T16:30:11Z")
We know that “Third world” means that we are talking about economic development. “Rich” and “poor” are words in standard English, whose definitions in terms of economic wealth are understood by everyone. What we mean when we say “Third world”, nowadays, means Poor Countries. Why the hell can’t we just call them that? Jeez, in American we even need to make up euphemisms for our own people. Instead of Poor, we have to make up words like underprivileged or marginalized or special-needs. This is bullshit. They’re fucking poor. They don’t have any money. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/77 "2016-12-01T16:38:26Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Please. “Financially Challenged”. Differently wealthy ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/78 "2016-12-01T17:45:06Z")
Well, for one, “least developed countries” has a more exacting definition than “poor countries.” It’s actually worse than just “third world,” and is sometimes known as “fourth world.” I suppose we can just call them “really fucking poor countries” if that suits the “anti-PC brigade” any better. I really don’t get the PC claptrap here, because “least developed country” doesn’t sound any better than “poor country” to my ears. Actually, it sounds worse. I’d rather be a “poor person” than one of the “least developed people.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/79 "2016-12-02T02:05:49Z")
Since when does America have beggars in the street? There was a time when “homeless” was a crises that needed to be solved by sundown. A fire destroyed an apartment building, leaving 6 families homeless. If those families have no one to take them in, and no money to house themselves instantly, the Red Cross would hand out vouchers for motel rooms. No middle class person ever SAW a “drug addict” - they existed in another, very dangerous world. We warned our kids about “bad people” and told them how to avoid them. Hell, we even built housing for the poorest of the poor (aka Negros or, more often, a harder pronunciation of the term). And we build them in places we never needed to be, and expected the residents to stay away from their “betters” unless they were servants who would be out of the area by nightfall. Yes, there were deed restrictions on large swaths of White America which required that any Negro employed at the home was to be out of the neighborhood by sundown. And you could never sell your property to a Jew. Chinatowns exist because property could not be sold to Chinese outside certain patches. Trump promises we will again be like this. America has great wealth. And it is in the hands of about 5% of the population. Just like a Third World countries. In first China, now North Korea, the big marker of an opening in the economic sphere was noted as the rise of a Middle Class. In the US, we are actively destroying the Middle Class. Sometimes, being old enough to see that your death is coming soon can be really comforting. Someone else will have to live in the coming mess. At one time, I kinda envied the young for their futures. Sadly, I now fell despair over their futures. Good luck kids - you’ll need it. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333/80 "2016-12-02T03:21:54Z")
> [@R3d\_Anonymous](#): > > Okay, I’ll concede America is not a Third World country, but the more important point is that it’s still pretty bad compared to other First World countries in many ways as I briefly discussed. You listed “low economic development” and “high levels of poverty.” The US unemployment rate is 4.9%. That’s equal to the UK. Spain is at 21%. France, 10%. No, we don’t have high levels of poverty, not even compared to other first-world countries. But you also say… > [@](#): > > It does say America is #4 when it comes to evaluating which country is “best”, but that’s largely due to America’s strong military and economic presence worldwide - doesn’t mean the average Joe’s life in America is also the best. So which is it? Low economic development or strong economic presence worldwide? Is 22% of the world’s economy large or small? Decide, please. And high foreign debt? [No, just no.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt) The US is at 114% GDP in debt to external debtors. The UK, over 500%. Hong Kong is at 334%. Are you sure you’re not just imagining things or exaggerating things so you can sound worldly, empathetic or profound in front of your friends? Are you sure you’re not just hunting for a reason to hate your country? Or maybe it’s just a lack of education…I know we suck at math. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agree-or-disagree-america-is-a-third-world-country/773333.md?page=3)