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?

  • WhatsHerBucket@lemmy.worldOP
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    4 months ago

    I’m not trolling, I’m genuinely asking. What doesn’t fall into the definition of a third world country?

    • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It’s a term rooted in geo-political alliances and power standings, not economic status

    • perviouslyiner@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago
      • 1st world = US, NATO, and their allies.
      • 2nd world = USSR, China, the Warsaw Pact, and their allies.
      • 3rd world = everyone else.

      e.g. Switzerland would be a 3rd world country by the original definition.

    • ZephrC@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Third world actually came from the cold war. There were the two major sides, but then there was a whole bunch of countries that weren’t really on either side. A whole “third world”. Of course, a lot of those countries were poor, so the term came to be associated with that, but there really isn’t a coherent definition of what it means to be a third world county. It has never really been about the standard of living for the average citizen though. More about whether a country is a bully or the bullied on the international stage, and we all know where the US falls on that spectrum.