I came across a very interesting article in Rolling Stone magazine, which looks at some important issues the US is dealing with today. Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/six-ways-america-is-like-a-third-world-country-20140305#ixzz2vIQew1Se Thoughts?
@mammamaia : What's even sadder is seeing ordinary Americans claim that this is actually still better than anything else could possibly be. It kills all hope that things can get better.
After living here a while I see a very wide divide between the haves and have-nots, it seems to be one or the other and California is such an expensive place to live it's easy to see why. What strikes me is the number of well-dressed, well-spoken people out begging. Veterans in uniform, women with 3 children with signs begging for food outside the supermarkets, single dads with kids looking for help with custody battles are way too common. Of course these people like I said are well-dressed and well-spoken could all be conmen/women but then again I think there are too many for this scam and I also think scammers may be a little more original and maybe even a tad above begging with signs describing their plight. Looking over the list on the link something curious struck me. When at my immigration appointment the other a US flag hung in the vast room and underneath a sign proudly boasting of America's greatest right - The Right To Vote. I didn't realise anyone with a felony loses that right. 2 kids in Carson City last month were each jailed for felonies after tagging a building. Ok, so spraying art on a wall is classed as vandalism and the building had to be repainted but that was it - 2 American kids aged 16 and 17 tarred for life and robbed of "America's Greatest Right" for doing something that was painted over and put right in a couple of days? This was a municipal building they sprayed urban art on. It wasn't a mosque with "Death to Muslims" all over it or a Vietnam memorial with something similar. I'm enjoying my time here but I miss the old America...
@erebh : That really breaks my heart. It reminds me of when the war started in my country, and we had over half a million refugees in Serbia, on the streets of Belgrade you could see retired university professors in their ragged cashmere coats digging through rubbish containers for food. It's barbaric.
There are definitely more than 6 ways, but most people, Americans especially, don't like admitting it. America is broken. I'll admit that I don't really notice it because I come from a middle class family, and life so far has been easy for me. But there's definitely a problem with the educational system, the increasing income gap, and the legal system (just to name a few things). Unfortunately, not a lot of people seem to care.
Seeing as Earth is the third planet orbiting the sun, aren't we all third world countries? Yuk! Yuk! I'll be hear all night, folks. Try the veal!
sure does! i've traveled and lived all over this planet and spent time with peoples of all races, creeds, and cultures, all social/economic levels, many of whom have a much better understanding of life and how best to deal with it than the average american... and a much healthier attitude toward their habitat and their fellow inhabitants...
@mammamaia : Ditto! But you know how they say, for something to change for the better, you first have to admit there is a problem. I think a lot of the world is still stuck on this step, in one way or another.
I blame people like the Koch brothers for a lot of America's problems. Harry Reid said it best: some people are "addicted to Koch."
@thirdwind : I heard that name lately, but it wasn't until just now that I looked them up. Hundred billion dollars yearly revenue won't protect itself, I suppose.
it would be impossible for the us to be a third world country because 1st world means alighned with the us, 2nd with russia and 3rd otherwise
You are quite right, once upon a time, during the cold war, this was true. It was a typical political propaganda term used to downgrade socialist and non-US backed countries in a semantic way. However, the very terms 'first, second and third world' are geopolitically outdated but still present in the popular culture. For a long time, it also meant 'developed, developing and undeveloped countries' but these days it's more like So, this is the meaning that was implied in this article, and according to the reputable references it used, the USA today indeed has many of the problems that 'third world countries' face, which is really regrettable, because it shouldn't be this way at all.
Broken... or functioning by design? I'm not going to go spouting conspiracy theories about this, that, and the other, but I am inclined to believe that there is a class of people who want America to operate this way. The U.S. is full of lies, b.s. and down right "f***ked-uppery," it's a real shame. For this country to be so rich, so advanced, and so powerful, It makes little sense that we lag behind so much. It is disheartening, especially when Americans tote that it's still the best the world has to offer. We no longer go by "1st world, 2nd world, and 3rd world" but the Industrialized Model (Post-industrial, Industrializing, and Least Industrial), otherwise scales of development (it depends on who you're talking to). The U.S. is Post-industrial, or most-developed, yet we lag behind other nations within this same category. And the stratification in this country is depressing. Yet it is a status quo that few with influence want to challenge. Average American (myself included due to age and experience) know very little about the world at large or the role of humans in it. We don't know how to interact with the natural world or other people. We value few things more than private property (and we tend to consider the people in our family in the same light). The U.S. is backwards (if not, then slanted at least) in more ways than one, but is it a broken system or just a b.s. one doing exactly what it's supposed to? The corporations run everything and they need ignorant, self-satisfied workers, as well as those desperate for work, and lacking in mobility. There's a lot of social control and programming at work, I'd say.
@Andrae Smith : That's a very good point, eloquently put. I have to admit that outside of the US, it looks exactly as you described. Nothing else makes any sense. Maybe the arrogance got in the way of common sense, maybe the arms race took priority over maintaining infrastructure, and maybe this is the perfect 'divide an conquer'?
I think a lot of it was disguised as advancement and nationalism. Throughout the 20th century, America made a lot of great strides, moving into the forefront of world power militarily, economically and scientifically. Americans did things differently than many other places and we became a great place overall (not including the blatant racism, sexism, and somewhat evident class divide that was growing). There was national pride, and propaganda to bolster it. America was doing something right, based on the results, so who could tell us otherwise. And what happens when a nation reaches the kind of influence that The US has had for decades now? Well let's take a glance at history. France, Spain, and England all began colonizing and expanding during the Age of Exploration (Though really, England was the front-runner in everything do to national wealth and navel power). China, when at it's peak, was the center for continental Asia for a long time. The Romans thought they were on top of the world for a time, as they conquers almost everyone. The same can be said for the Egyptians before them. Each of These groups became complacent and self important. They were relatively detached from the "subordinate" nation-states. Right now, the U.S. is the world's powerhouse, so we don't look at other cultures without seeing them as beneath our own. Despite this, we fail to see our internal issues, even with the lens focused inward. Why? Because America is rife with propaganda and limited in education regarding the humanities. Number-crunchers and scientists are promoted, not people with the solid ability to think critically and analyze the world. What does it profit a company to have people who care about more than making money? And what better way to ensure that the main objective is money than making people value things, until they are dependent on things,while simultaneously fooling them into thinking our acquisition of things makes us better off than other countries. It has a pacifying effect after a few generations of indoctrination. It the same approach Christianity took historically. Make people want what they don't have. Trick them into thinking they need it. Make them believe they are better than everyone because they have it. Dismiss questions as insignificant or heresy (otherwise come up with convoluted doctrine to convince more skeptics). At this rate, no one want's to challenge what most people now believe, especially since the only things we really see pushed about the world beyond america are little nature shows and then violence in less-developed countries.
Really, really interesting @Andrae Smith, especially when you pointed out Christianity methods, in fact, one of the connections that's frequently made by conspiracy theorists is between Vatican and the US, I think it stems from the time when the nazis were smuggled through Vatican, out of Europe and into the Americas when WWII ended. Europe is used to empires rising and falling, so in that sense, the US is just another one. But what's damaging US' reputation the most isn't the aggressive foreign policy but the hypocrisy of 'spreading democracy' and 'human rights' via illegal attacks on sovereign countries using depleted uranium bombs and drone planes, as well as by now proven usurpation of legitimate governments by financing extremists, organising 'revolutions' and implementing puppet governments who just hand over whatever resources US (or leading NATO countries) need. US-lead NATO has basically destroyed international law, and instituted the law of the strongest, while their mouths are full of international law when someone else breaks it, such as Russia. Watching it from the outside, it's just too much to swallow.
See you get this. You really do. My last post was primarily about following trends and noting similarities, expand on a possible explanation for Americans's internal blindness. You hit on the real, current issues, and I like that you mention he hypocrisy in America's foreign policy. We talk about spreading democracy, but really everything is done to advance and protect American economic and military interests. America is seeking imperial status, even if some people can't quite see it yet. Even NATO and the UN (perhaps to a lesser degree) are largely influenced by American interest and sway.
Most times, they have to hit bottom first. My first script intends to touch on this. It has as it's antagonists, the US govt, the Iranian Govt and society at large. In it, the leadership takes the human race to the brink of extinction through a nuclear war when the ecosystem has been greatly damaged after centuries of pollution and deforestation along side nationalistic and religious fervor from propaganda that blinds the human race to what it is doing to itself. I hope I can hit those points well enough to get the message across without being too preachy.
