OTTAWA – Canada is warning members of the LGBTQ+ community that they may face discrimination if they travel to some places in the United States. Global Affairs Canada says in a new update posted...
I agree that in a lot of the states people can be pretty nasty towards LGBTQ+ people, but saying it is becoming a third world country is a bit extreme no?
One of the common data points used by organizations to rate a country as “third world” or not is the state of its infrastructure. In that department, the US is certainly closer to third world countries than we are to our European brethren. It’s been ignored and underfunded for so long that there are many places where it’s quite literally falling apart, and that’s not even getting into the state of public transit (or lack thereof) or how the single family suburb sprawl is slowly bleeding cities dry of their capital.
There are other horrible things like parts of the US that have never had plumbing (Appalachia comes to mind) or things like the Flint, Michigan crisis (do they have drinkable water? I think as of last year they still didn’t. They might be able to take showers again, though, without causing permanent health issues for their kids). We have higher rates of women who die during childbirth than some third world countries. The quality of healthcare here is ranked the worst out of the first world nations while also being the most expensive. The wealthy go to Canada for prescriptions and surgery, or Mexico for dental work - Mexico apparently has better dentists than the US from what I’ve heard. We are #1 in number of incarcerated citizens per capita. The wealth disparity in the US today is supposedly worse than it was in France in the years just before the French Revolution, where the price of a loaf of bread was more than a day’s pay for the average worker. Upward class mobility (being born into a poor family and being able to become wealthy) is the lowest it’s been, I think, since the country was founded. A year or two before COVID happened, I was looking into starting a side business and found studies saying that a new business was more likely to fail today than in the Great Depression. If I remember the stats right, it was something like 40% of businesses fail in their first year, another 20% in their second year, and by year 4, 80% of new businesses have gone under.
I’ve heard the US described as “a third world country in a Prada belt,” and I think it’s an apt description. Policy-wise, we’re closer to third world countries than we’d like to admit. We’ve just been living off the postwar economic boom from WW2 that centered the US as the world’s largest economy and wealthiest nation to ever exist. The sheer amount of money circulating in our economy has kept the nation chugging along through whatever stupid things the corporations and the politicians have done over the years.
It’s hyperbole brought to you by keyboard doomers who’ve never left their state much less their country. Talk to me when huge regions lack electricity or indoor plumbing.
Anybody interested in seeing that can hop over the border to Tijuana and check out villages on hillsides essentially made from trash where all the buildings are particle board and cinder block. There’s shitty parts of the rural south, but to claim they’re the same demonstrates a profound lack of perspective. I dunno, maybe it’s gotten better since the late 90s when I was there, but there are degrees to these things.
We can discuss America’s fascism problem without being ridiculous muppets and or Kremlin/CCP propaganda vehicles.
Texas is a state, dear. Administrative incompetence notwithstanding, it still has better infrastructure than a good portion of the world and pretty much all of what we’d consider the “3rd world.” And also, they only have the problems they have because they deliberately cut themselves off from the national grid.
Cut the goalpost crap. You said talk to you when huge regions lose power, texas is 7% of the goddamn country and it lost power for an extended period - and still has an unstable grid! - due to corrupt pocket lining.
Do you understand the difference between power outages and there being no infrastructure at all in the first place? And, AS I MENTIONED, Texas is in the spot it’s in because they refuse to work with the rest of the grid.
The goalposts aren’t moving, you just have no idea where they were. I’m guessing due to critical failures in reading comprehension or being paid in rubles.
Yes, clearly the US is a 3rd world country because some states experience occasional issues with their grids. This doesn’t happen anywhere else in the “first world.” Oh, wait.
If you’re smelling shit, he that smelt it dealt it.
Or you could cut the playground crap and argue like a grownup, whatever.
I agree that in a lot of the states people can be pretty nasty towards LGBTQ+ people, but saying it is becoming a third world country is a bit extreme no?
One of the common data points used by organizations to rate a country as “third world” or not is the state of its infrastructure. In that department, the US is certainly closer to third world countries than we are to our European brethren. It’s been ignored and underfunded for so long that there are many places where it’s quite literally falling apart, and that’s not even getting into the state of public transit (or lack thereof) or how the single family suburb sprawl is slowly bleeding cities dry of their capital.
There are other horrible things like parts of the US that have never had plumbing (Appalachia comes to mind) or things like the Flint, Michigan crisis (do they have drinkable water? I think as of last year they still didn’t. They might be able to take showers again, though, without causing permanent health issues for their kids). We have higher rates of women who die during childbirth than some third world countries. The quality of healthcare here is ranked the worst out of the first world nations while also being the most expensive. The wealthy go to Canada for prescriptions and surgery, or Mexico for dental work - Mexico apparently has better dentists than the US from what I’ve heard. We are #1 in number of incarcerated citizens per capita. The wealth disparity in the US today is supposedly worse than it was in France in the years just before the French Revolution, where the price of a loaf of bread was more than a day’s pay for the average worker. Upward class mobility (being born into a poor family and being able to become wealthy) is the lowest it’s been, I think, since the country was founded. A year or two before COVID happened, I was looking into starting a side business and found studies saying that a new business was more likely to fail today than in the Great Depression. If I remember the stats right, it was something like 40% of businesses fail in their first year, another 20% in their second year, and by year 4, 80% of new businesses have gone under.
I’ve heard the US described as “a third world country in a Prada belt,” and I think it’s an apt description. Policy-wise, we’re closer to third world countries than we’d like to admit. We’ve just been living off the postwar economic boom from WW2 that centered the US as the world’s largest economy and wealthiest nation to ever exist. The sheer amount of money circulating in our economy has kept the nation chugging along through whatever stupid things the corporations and the politicians have done over the years.
It’s hyperbole brought to you by keyboard doomers who’ve never left their state much less their country. Talk to me when huge regions lack electricity or indoor plumbing.
Anybody interested in seeing that can hop over the border to Tijuana and check out villages on hillsides essentially made from trash where all the buildings are particle board and cinder block. There’s shitty parts of the rural south, but to claim they’re the same demonstrates a profound lack of perspective. I dunno, maybe it’s gotten better since the late 90s when I was there, but there are degrees to these things.
We can discuss America’s fascism problem without being ridiculous muppets and or Kremlin/CCP propaganda vehicles.
cough Texasgrid cough
Texas is a state, dear. Administrative incompetence notwithstanding, it still has better infrastructure than a good portion of the world and pretty much all of what we’d consider the “3rd world.” And also, they only have the problems they have because they deliberately cut themselves off from the national grid.
Cut the goalpost crap. You said talk to you when huge regions lose power, texas is 7% of the goddamn country and it lost power for an extended period - and still has an unstable grid! - due to corrupt pocket lining.
Do you understand the difference between power outages and there being no infrastructure at all in the first place? And, AS I MENTIONED, Texas is in the spot it’s in because they refuse to work with the rest of the grid.
The goalposts aren’t moving, you just have no idea where they were. I’m guessing due to critical failures in reading comprehension or being paid in rubles.
Flail harder.
You must be fun at parties.
You must play Stairway in guitar shops.
Yeah, that’s because you removed the goalposts entirely.
… but, you seem to be suggesting, not a huge region.
Have you seen it? It’s huge! And it’s a region!
California has been having rolling blackouts too, which you forgot while you’ve had your head up your ass and were smelling your own shit.
Yes, clearly the US is a 3rd world country because some states experience occasional issues with their grids. This doesn’t happen anywhere else in the “first world.” Oh, wait.
If you’re smelling shit, he that smelt it dealt it.
Or you could cut the playground crap and argue like a grownup, whatever.
Thanks for setting an example of how to argue like a grownup.
Where was that happening? I lived in California 30 years (until last month) and had not experienced a rolling blackout since the ENRON era.
It was only a year ago: https://abcnews.go.com/US/california-blackouts-power-grid/story?id=89460998
The other guy is just a moron.
It’s a meaningless term that is mostly used as a libel and only muddies discussions.