Is the US Turning into a Third World Country?

It seems that there isn't a single, iron-clad definition of what a third world nation is, however there are many similar definitions with similar criteria and the US is becoming disturbingly close on many levels.

1. Incomes- Even though the US average income is high compared to poorer countries, there are many areas with widespread poverty, especially if you compare the cost of living in the US to other countries.

2. Income inequality- This has been getting a lot of attention as it is increasing rapidly in the US and is one of the key metrics of being in the third world

3. Economic growth- The US is above third world standards on this one, but not as high as it used to be.

4. Health and life expectancy- The US has a noticeable difference in life span now between poor and rich areas, though still far better than many third world countries. Health problems aren't usually as serious as in the third world, but nevertheless millions of Americans have serious health problems from cancer to diabetes to lack of sleep. They also count how many people don't have health care, which was growing greatly in the US before Obamacare and will no doubt increase again if Republicans repeal it.

5. High population growth/birth rate and dependency on others for subsistence- The US has the highest population growth of all the first world nations. We also have tens of millions of people who are dependent on assistance for food or housing.

6.
(D) High and Rising Levels of Unemployment and Under-Employment- We aren't nearly as bad as third world countries, but underemployment is a serious problem due to outsourcing, competition and corporate greed.

7. Heavy Dependence on Agri-Production and large percentage of the population living in rural areas- I'd say yes to this one, though many areas obviously have non-agrian economies, a large geographic area of the US does.

8. General and Social Backwardness:

The people from UDCs are highly inelastic, rigid, conservative and over-contended. They hardly think to change their present set-up-
Definitely a yes on this one for much of the country.

9. Political Corruption- Yes, I think everyone here agrees on this one.

So overall, we may not be exactly a third world country yet, but many of the indicators point in that direction. I'm afraid that without some kind of awakening/ enlightenment of the people, it's only a matter of time until we are fully in the third-world.

www.economicsconcepts.com...

www.thirdworldtraveler.com...

a reply to: CB328

All we need , to complete the cycle , is for foreigners to come and take our resources for next to nothing . Oh yeah

I a reply to: CB328

I think you answered your own question. Interesting though in the US, there are at least two groups going backwards. The leftists are as intractable as the right wing in their views and are rigidly dogmatic.

The political corruption in both the Government and in the media is blatant and only gets worse by the minute.

My answer would be that the US is not yet a third world bannana republic, but its moving that way and fast.

a reply to: CB328

Lol, they have pondered the idea. The only way that the US is going to become a third world country is if it is nuked. And yes there are people who have proposed the idea and there are billionaires like Soros who would spend hundreds of millions to make it happen. But the US cannot just become a third world from a super power with things like banks failing, they tried to bring an economic collapse in '08 and the US was too strong and overcome it, and now we are working on ways to prevent that from happening again. One way or the other, the bottom line is that we have to be sold out to fail that large, the actual people in America are not going to slack off.

a reply to: CB328

It is kind of shocking when you consider the amount of money the U.S. has spent globally on the destabilizing of other countries, either through financial deals to actual third world countries (whereby investment loans are provided in exchange for political favours and construction contracts) to the outright arming & supply of weapons to various groups.

Global corporatocracy over national democracy, I think it's easy to see that this is the case, and the question is, how much is enough for the 1 percent?

a reply to: CB328

There's is a definition it's just never used correctly.

The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO, or the Communist Bloc. The United States, Western European nations and their allies represented the First World, while the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and their allies represented the Second World. This terminology provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on social, political, cultural and economic divisions.

wiki

The term “Third World” was originally meant to describe a non-aligned nation in the Cold War. The “Second World” was the Soviets and all their lackies, and the “First World” was the West.

Third World nowadays refers to nations who are developing nations, and who are at the low end of the Human Development Index. This is basically most of Africa and a smattering of other counties.

The US is an advanced industrial country and at the high end of the Human Development Index, thus qualifying as a developed nation.

So, while the US has flaws, it is not a poor county. Even the poor in the US are rich by the standards of the average African poor. Health care may be questionable, but children live. Agricuture may be intensive, but peope are fed. There may be corruption, but nothing on the scale of the judiciary. On, and on.

Here’s some info in the HDI

HDI on Wiki

Can you pick out the Third World Country? If not then I guess the answer must be yes.

By design. Gutting the country's manufacturing was no accident. Garbage education.
I've learned recently that cursive is no longer taught.
I can only imagine what else has changed for the worse.
It's a continuation of redistribution of wealth.
America has had it too good for too long.
Trump was elected to change this way of thinking.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
stop hating.

This may be true, but the 8 years of Obama is nearly over.

Starting Jan. 20, America can begin the healing process.

originally posted by: UFOdanger
a reply to: CB328

Lol, they have pondered the idea. The only way that the US is going to become a third world country is if it is nuked. And yes there are people who have proposed the idea and there are billionaires like Soros who would spend hundreds of millions to make it happen. But the US cannot just become a third world from a super power with things like banks failing, they tried to bring an economic collapse in '08 and the US was too strong and overcome it, and now we are working on ways to prevent that from happening again. One way or the other, the bottom line is that we have to be sold out to fail that large, the actual people in America are not going to slack off.

May I ask how we overcame '08?
Did we wave a magic wand or were we fiscally responsible and let nature take its course? Maybe help people keep their homes?
No, no I think I recall a magic wand.

I also have to ask, if it were so easy to overcome the worst economic disaster of modern times then why didn't we just avoid it to begin with? I mean it's not like it was a surprise or anything.
If you can'tanswer why we didn't avoid collapse then you can conclude it was allowed by design.

The term "third world" was originally coined to reflect how better America was than anywhere else. "America Exceptionalism" might be a close variant.

Back when America was presented to the world as the land of milk and honey, the mountain of gold, blah blah...

we had better infrastructure, education, medicine, (armaments), everyone wants to come to America to partake of the first, best lifestyle, right? Not anymore, these things aren't so true anymore, the rest of the world has caught up, except for those regions of the world that are kept destitute for resource exploitation, there are plenty of countries that have good lifestyles, because we showed them how to enslave their people into cities and make them more dependent instead of more independent. Now they have adopted our ways and plugged into the American, democratic, hegemonic unitarian... dollar.

Third world term was also used to promote helping lesser developed nations climb up to our civilized status. Mostly an excuse to regime change them into puppet states more favorable to the west, so that we could exploit them for their resources.

originally posted by: GodEmperor
This may be true, but the 8 years of Obama is nearly over.

Starting Jan. 20, America can begin the healing process.

I'm no fan of Obama but this downtrend in the US has been the way for decades now. Bush Clinton Bush Obama might as well have been all one administration. Very little difference. They all saw action in iraq, they ALL led the dumbing down of our education system. In my eyes they're all domestic enemies of the United States.

a reply to: CB328

I've been to places in West Virginia that seamed to feared my running water.

originally posted by: gription
a reply to: CB328

I've been to places in West Virginia that seamed to feared my running water.

And yet my English is still better than yours. Guess we don't "feared" education.

Actually, they are well defined models:

Four Worlds
After World War II the world split into two large geopolitical blocs and spheres of influence with contrary views on government and the politically correct society:
1 - The bloc of democratic-industrial countries within the American influence sphere, the "First World".
2 - The Eastern bloc of the communist-socialist states, the "Second World".
3 - The remaining three-quarters of the world's population, states not aligned with either bloc were regarded as the "Third World."
4 - The term "Fourth World", coined in the early 1970s by Shuswap Chief George Manuel, refers to widely unknown nations (cultural entities) of indigenous peoples, "First Nations" living within or across national state boundaries.
www.nationsonline.org...

But an important discussion you've brought in none the less.

a reply to: Martin75

It's colloquial, slang if you understand the meanining.

a reply to: CB328

good post...... sure looks like someone wánts her to go down the drain right....
while at the same time, more strange -- all those trillions the past two decades to China
[now from whére..?]

originally posted by: ezramullins
Can you pick out the Third World Country? If not then I guess the answer must be yes.

Beautiful beaches you have on the first video but those are the exceptions and not as common
This is a more common site all over the country


I talked to a few homeless downtown and asked them why they are not at the shelters, they replied the shelters are full.
So I called all the shelter numbers, and sure enough, there is a waiting list just to get a bed in a shelter.

This is the reality in this country

How come the private sector is not stepping up to address this as I am told they would?

originally posted by: VinylTyrant
By design. Gutting the country's manufacturing was no accident. Garbage education.
I've learned recently that cursive is no longer taught.
I can only imagine what else has changed for the worse.
It's a continuation of redistribution of wealth.
America has had it too good for too long.
Trump was elected to change this way of thinking.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
stop hating.

How is Trump going to make it great again when his cabinet it stocked with Globalist like Goldman Sachs?