A rant: The USA is now a third-world country.

[SnowLabrador]

Here we are. As the rest of the world's nations flatten their curves, deals with their outbreaks, and slowly resumes something resembling normal life, the USA is the major outlier.

We have people refusing to wear masks or socially distance, and insisting that schools reopen. We have far, far more cases and deaths every day than other developed countries. And we have a health care system in which many people are afraid to seek testing or treatment due to cost.

Last and most, we have a President who seeks to rush a broken vaccine through in order to get re-elected, which will reduce public trust in a working vaccine once it does come out. And if re-elected, said President will continue to not do anything about COVID.

The effects this has had on the nation's standing, both domestically and internationally, are heartbreaking. The USA is set for another spike soon due to social distancing fraying, flu season isn't far away, and hospitals will be overburdened and have to cancel all non-COVID treatment due to overflowing with patients choking on or drowning in their own bodily fluids as a result of COVID.

Abroad, the US has become a further pariah. As other countries close their borders to Americans, including strong allies like Canada, while opening up to other nations that have dealt with their outbreaks successfully, Americans are seen as disease vectors. If World War II is what began Pax Americana, COVID is what ended it. I don't like that other countries aren't allowing us in, but I support their decision all the same, because we're diseased.

This all saddens me, because I love to travel and won't get to do so during the best years of my life. That said, I agree with their decision even if I'm not happy about it, for the reasons stated above.

If this pandemic ever ends and is relegated to the history books, future generations will learn of COVID-19 as the catalyst for the fall of the United States. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Here we are. As the rest of the world's nations flatten their curves, deals with their outbreaks, and slowly resumes something resembling normal life, the USA is the major outlier.

We have people refusing to wear masks or socially distance, and insisting that schools reopen. We have far, far more cases and deaths every day than other developed countries. And we have a health care system in which many people are afraid to seek testing or treatment due to cost.

It's worth noting that plenty of countries have reopened their schools in spite of rising case numbers (ex. France).

I agree that our COVID response was exceptionally bad relative to our capacity to handle it, but there are really no countries that are blameless in this crisis. Everyone screwed up at some point.

[Crumpets]

If the US is a third-world country, maybe we can get some of that sweet sweet development money from the superpowers.

[pikachu]

This thread and the other one make it obvious that Atlas desperately needs more posters from actual third-world countries. Or least some with more than a passing interest in them.

[It’s so Joever]

No.

[Joe Republic]

Nah, thanks to Trump's boss, we're definitely part of the Second World these days.

[John Dule]

This reminds me of the time that a bunch of idiots put the US on a list of the ten worst countries for women. This thread is equally ridiculous, though arguably less ill-intentioned.

[Xing]

While I agree with a lot of your points, and yes, this pandemic is yet another example of the many problems in our country and reflects poorly on us, but calling the U.S. a “third world country” is going too far. Our economic inequality and healthcare system puts us quite a bit behind many first world countries, but the quality of life in every third world country I’ve been to is way lower than it is here. It’s really not comparable.

[WD]

I understand where OP is coming from. America is not in a good place right now. It’s understandable to be upset and disappointed with the current state of affairs in our country, but to say that America is a “third world country” is silly and absurd.

First, “Third world country” has a different meaning than it is currently used. It was created during the Cold war to refer to countries that weren’t aligned with the US or the Soviet Union. (By that definition America can not be a Third World Country whatsoever). Countries like Britain and France would be considered First world, countries like Cuba and North Korea were the second world and countries like Nigeria or Indonesia would be considered 3rd world. It just so happened that many of these non-aligned countries happened to be poor, underdeveloped, and non-industrialized.

Using the modern definition, a third world country would be one that suffers from many societal issues like a high poverty rate, a lack of economic stability, and few natural resources. The United States suffers from none of these. The poverty rate is 15%, much higher than many other OCED countries and definitely needs to be reduced (that in my view is a legitimate criticism of the US) but far, far better than the majority of nations. Countries like Zimbabwe have Poverty rates in the 70% range. The poverty in other nations makes America look like a golden palace. Our economy is quite resilient, while at the moment unemployment is high, the United States economy has been the strongest in the world. We have a GDP of 21 Trillion Dollars, we have a median household income of 60K, compared to the World wide average of $10,000. What 3rd world country has a median household income as high as the United States?

 We dominate industries such as Healthcare and Technology. We have numerous natural resources such as Oil, Coal, and Timber. The natural resources in this country are worth as much as $45 Trillion. Inflation is low, our currency is one of the strongest in the world and it’s so strong that many other countries use the U.S Dollar as their de factor currency. America is undoubtedly an economic powerhouse. We’ve hit rough spots before, but we have recovered in the past and we will recover again.

I’ve been too 3rd world countries before. They would kill to have what we have here. To call the US a third world country is not just an insult to America, but people all around the world who go through hardship each and every day. Most of us couldn’t imagine what they go through.

America is many things, but it is not a 3rd world country.

[Fuzzy Bear]

No.

[Battista Minola 1616]

This thread and the other one make it obvious that Atlas desperately needs more posters from actual third-world countries. Or least some with more than a passing interest in them.

There was an Atlas institution from an actual third-world country once, but he was banned (opebo).

[Former President tack50]

cries in Spanish 

[Former President tack50]

Now seriously, on one of the international COVID threads I did a ranking of the worst COVID responses. And sure, the US get the bronze medal in the "Bad Covid responses" Olympics. But let's look at their competition (excluding microstates):

Honestly this is a simpler answer than what people think. Just go to per capita stats and do a mixture of deaths/capita and cases/capita

Here is my very rough methodology. Take the world average of cases/Capita and deaths/capita. Then see what percentage above or below the world average each country is (for example if the world average is 100 deaths and a country has 200 deaths, that means it gets 200%). Then average the 2 numbers for the deaths and cases above the world average.

Doing this very rough methodology you get the following list of the top 20 worst responses (I'll exclude microstates and places which are not really countries or are unrecognized and put them in italics):

1 Luxembourg
2 Peru
3 USA
4 Spain
5 United Arab Emirates
6 Bahrain
7 Italy
8 Chile
9 Iceland
10 Brazil
11 UK
12 Sweden
13 France
14 Panama
15 Ireland
16 Mexico
17 Bolivia
18 Colombia
19 Netherlands
20 Ecuador

Sure the US did badly. But "third world country"? Not really, at least not in COVID

In fact, third world countries are by far the ones that are doing the best based off the data (though it is probably a function of them having low testing and young populations)

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Sure, this country has its flaws, but calling it a third-world country is beyond ridiculous.

[Donald Trump’s Toupée]

lol

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Entering a period of national decline != reaching the status of a third-world country.

Said decline isn't necessarily irreversible and probably isn't the end of the world/a constant trend anyway.

[SInNYC]

If the US is a third-world country, maybe we can get some of that sweet sweet development money from the superpowers.

Only if we also allow them to dictate that we are required to have an austerity budget even in recessionary times, vote with them (or at least not against) them in every UN issue they push, and let their corporations sell in the US while abiding only by their rules. Depending on who the benefactor is, we might also need to let them have a military base in the US and have our political candidates vetted by them.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I’ve been too 3rd world countries before. They would kill to have what we have here. To call the US a third world country is not just an insult to America, but people all around the world who go through hardship each and every day. Most of us couldn’t imagine what they go through.

America is many things, but it is not a 3rd world country.

It probably doesn't help that when most Americans go to third world countries, they're going to the tourist-y parts or otherwise experiencing day-to-day life in an "everything's so rustic and relaxing" way that would be very different if they had to live a regular life there.

(This is part of the reason I find the whole "digital nomad" concept kind of revolting and vaguely imperialist. You're basically saying, "I want to live as a rentier in Thailand and let the little people there cater to my every whim because I'm a 0.001%-er by their standards." It's an updated version of when the younger sons of earls would go live in Africa or India as civil servants or mining/railroad overseers because it enabled them to have the standard of living their position no longer automatically afforded them back in Britain.)

There's nothing more eye-rolling than when white progressives sincerely say "But even third world countries have free universal healthcare" and don't make the connection that the free universal healthcare is in a crumbling hospital with a disinterested doctor who gets paid as much as a cab driver and you have to bring your own bandages and syringes with you because they don't have enough for everyone.

[The Free North]

The OP clearly has never actually been to a third world country. Lack of perspective is a damming thing, especially from your safe, clean, well lit first world home.

[HillGoose]

bruh moment

[Higgins]

The OP is a third rate poster.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

The USA is a great country. The problem is that Americans are f#cking stupid.

[Ancestral Republican]

There's a lot of wealth here and therefore some very rich areas that bring the average up, but thanks to America's failed system of governance in the past few decades and perhaps throughout its history, parts of it would qualify as Third World countries. The Black Belt, Native American reservations, Appalachia, certain very poor Rust Belt cities like Gary, Flint, Johnstown, etc. all have atrocious quality of life issues, often lack of access to sufficient sanitation facilities, opportunities, and jobs, with high levels of consumer and medical debt. OP is right on the money, but there's a lot of people on this forum who think Seattle is a representative example of the United States.

[Big Abraham]

This thread and the other one make it obvious that Atlas desperately needs more posters from actual third-world countries. Or least some with more than a passing interest in them.

There was an Atlas institution from an actual third-world country once, but he was banned (opebo).

I have a feeling if we had a lot more of those, a lot more would be getting banned. Anyone who's ever actually met someone from a Third World country knows they don't tend to hold the most "politically correct" views, to say the least

[Stranger in a strange land]

This thread and the other one make it obvious that Atlas desperately needs more posters from actual third-world countries. Or least some with more than a passing interest in them.

There was an Atlas institution from an actual third-world country once, but he was banned (opebo).

I have a feeling if we had a lot more of those, a lot more would be getting banned. Anyone who's ever actually met someone from a Third World country knows they don't tend to hold the most "politically correct" views, to say the least

Opebo wasn't from Thailand: he lived there as a sexpat.