Is the USA a third world country?
97363
No.  The definition I found follows:\n\nThe economically underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America, considered as an entity with common characteristics, such as poverty, high birthrates, and economic dependence on the advanced countries. The French demographer Alfred Sauvy coined the expression ("tiers monde" in French) in 1952 by analogy with the "third estate," the commoners of France before and during the French Revolution-as opposed to priests and nobles, comprising the first and second estates respectively. Like the third estate, wrote Sauvy, the third world is nothing, and it "wants to be something." The term therefore implies that the third world is exploited, much as the third estate was exploited, and that, like the third estate its destiny is a revolutionary one. It conveys as well a second idea, also discussed by Sauvy, that of non-alignment, for the third world belongs neither to the industrialized capitalist world nor to the industrialized Communist bloc. The expression third world was used at the 1955 conference of Afro-Asian countries held in Bandung, Indonesia. In 1956 a group of social scientists associated with Sauvy's National Institute of Demographic Studies, in Paris, published a book called Le Tiers-Monde. Three years later, the French economist Francois Perroux launched a new journal, on problems of underdevelopment, with the same title. By the end of the 1950's the term was frequently employed in the French media to refer to the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America.
405995
Globalization affects the periphery countries very negatively. With things like structural adjustment programs forcing third world gov. to give up their soverignty there is very little a country can do to try and find there own sustainable way to grow their country. Since these countries are often exploited through investment and the labor practices of transnationals it shouldnt suprise anyone that discontent and instability is often a third world problem.
816815
The US is a strong, prosperous country. If the desire was there to take ove the world as other countries have throughout time, it could potentially be done. The thing is - the desire isn't there. The US runs on the principles of democracy, free enterprise, and freedoms. If the US took over the world, it would become either a totalitarian society or a dictatorship, two things we have looked down upon for decades. The United States is already one of the most prosperous countries in the world, one which believes in free enterprise [having a rich, poor, and middle class - much like a social hierarchy]. If the US was so determined to become the most wealthy country in society, it would go against its principles [which date back to the Declaration of Independence] of free enterprise. \n\nThe mear thought is silly, my dear. Silly.
813797
No, those that are destroying the USA are the corporate big boys who are selling out this country and its jobs to the lowest bidder round the world.  Send the jobs to China and now Bush's Vietnam, and let us patriots wonder what happened in ten years when we are a third world country and trillions of dollars in debt.  This cynical disregard for this country and its citizens is unparalleled in history, and it is some of the most unpatriotic behavior of all time.
555296
What I know is that the USA are thought to be the center of the world.It seems to me that only Americans have the right to live.
865508
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_world\n\nThe terms First World, Second World, and Third World, can be used to divide the nations of Earth into three broad categories. Third World is a term first coined in 1952 by French demographer Alfred Sauvy on the model of Sieyès's declaration concerning the Third Estate during the French Revolution: "...because at the end this ignored, exploited, scorned Third World like the Third Estate, wants to become something too." The Third World later became a synonym of these nations that aligned themselves with neither the West nor with the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War. Thus, the Non-Aligned Movement was created after the 1955 Bandung Conference.\n\nToday, however, the term is frequently used to denote nations with a low UN Human Development Index (HDI), independent of their political status (meaning that the PRC, Russia and Cuba, all of which were very strongly aligned during the Cold War, are often termed third world).
15610
As a matter of fact, America is less free than many other countries: Canada, Western Europe, Australia, etc..
33634
i dont know that I see it as the next third world.  But I do see it slumping close to it.  We are as a nation losing power, wealth, reputation.  I have been abroad and I can tell you the picture that Europeans paint of us is not always nice.  Economically we are losing our footing.  Banking, cars, products in general.  People in america and abroad are buying European products, Jananese proiducts.  It doesnt do our economy any good and yet as far as I can tell they have done nothing to change this.  We are busy fixing the lives of others however we havent taken the time to take care of our own citizens lives.  And you have other countries offering us help becase we are unable to do so because of the mess we have created else where.  I truly believe we are losing our super power status and becoming just another country that exists on the planet.  Living abroad I dont like telling people i am from america because it starts up alot of contoversy.  Alot of arguments as to what it means to be an american and what we have become.  I agree with you when you wake up and smell the coffee. you arent smelling folgers any more.  Its just the reality we are forced to swallow as americans and it isnt easy for us I think.
424901
people from other nations, especially 3rd world countries find freedoms they don't enjoy at home in the US, such as religious and caste system types of situations, poor stay poor, also alot of opportunity for sucess here
1109501
No, I don't think so. US is contributing very little money to help clear poverty around the world. Only UK and Australia did that largely. I'm not sure with this answer.
875441
It already is.  As they are much more subtle than we, it does not look like much, unless you look closely as you have.  They have been buying up parts of the US, Africa, the Pacific Rim,  and negotiating deals all over the world as well.  The have invested heavily in education while our kids can't compete with Rwanda in math and science.  AS the world goes digital, and international conglomeration of business is nearly complete, people in our society will find they cannot compete, lacking even the basics in education.  I think we may well wake up one morning to find we have fallen way behind, and discover we have become a third world nation.
531657
Africa isn't a country.\n\n\nThe world is divided into three economic levels, first, second and third world, or it was at one point.  The gap between wealthy and poor has increased, and there are remarkably few second world countries in the world. Actually, I can't think of any.  \n\nFirst world is the wealthiest, like the United States for example, second world is developing... like say... post WWII Germany?  Maybe not.  Third world is bottom of the totem pole.  Right now most of Africa is in that pile, as is a large chunk of South and Central America, as well as some Asian and Eastern Eurpoean countries.
1073950
Most third world countries. Look at the poverty and depravity that exist in those areas. The rest of the world should be noted for their non-participation. Action speaks better than words!
101594
the US isn't a state, it's a country
503176
The use of the terms First, the Second, and the Third World is a rough, and it's safe to say, outdated model of the geopolitical world from the time of the cold war.\nThere is no official definition of the first, second, and the third world. \n\nFour Worlds\nAfter 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: \n\n1 - The bloc of democratic-industrial countries within the American influence sphere, the "First World".\n2 - The Eastern bloc of the communist-socialist states, the "Second World". \n3 - The remaining three-quarters of the world's population, states not aligned with either bloc were regarded as the "Third World."\n4 - 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.\n\nHere is a map showing which ountries are which:\nhttp://www.nationsonline.org/bilder/third_world_map.jpg
354809
You're not third world in my book. You are America's greatest ally and we love your country! God bless you for always being there for us when everyone else is bitching. The Aussie's are a first world country as far as I'm concerned! Want to visit that beautiful country one day!
412999
I believe it is. America is the richest, most successful country the world has ever known. Everyone envies our freedom and way of life. Every third-world country that doesn't understand the value of life, or the contribution that the individual can make, given the freedom to do it, hates our way of life. That's why all of the oil money in the middle east si so scary. Here are people that are barely out of the stone age, with enough money to purchase whatever they want. Including nuclear weapons. \nI think America, and other like-minded democracies around the world are the only salvation for this world. They have the power, and the STABILITY to keep the nut jobs from blowing us all up!