the united states is a third world country.
at least in my opinion it is. but what about more objective measures? how do we stack up?
let’s take a look.
i started wondering about this after katrina when other countries offered aid, and we turned it down, or at least i think we turned it down. we might have taken it but the government is keeping it quiet because they don’t want us to know we took necessary stuff from the likes of canada and mexico.
anyway, i think that any country which has so many uncared for poor people, and no national health care plan, and so many high school dropouts and undereducated people and all, given how much power and wealth we have, should be categorized as third world just for general purposes.
or at least second world. but not first world, that’s for sure.
so i turned to my friend the wikipedia to see what it thought. and i quickly found this handy definition of what constitutes third world. and the wikipedia has a lot of definitions, but the generally accepted one is ranking on what’s called the “un human development index”, which measures things like how many babies die and how stupid the citizenry is and how much useless product is produced and consumed and such.
and, who knew? we are on the list at #10 and falling fast. we’re not even #1 in our own hemisphere–that honor goes to canada. the people that probably sent us some katrina-relief stuff.
we are behind nine other countries, a lot of which are located, oddly enough, in very cold climates. norway. iceland. sweden. switzerland. does being cold all the time make you more industrious and more compassionate toward the well-being of your fellow shivering citizens? it certainly seems to be the case. if that’s the corollary, then this country is in big trouble what with the global warming and all.
oh i forgot. i’m told that’s just a theory, like evolution and 24 hours in a day and the round earth revolving around the sun at thousands of miles an hour. do you feel like you are going thousands of miles an hour? what rubbish.
anyway, luxembourg seems to have it right. they’ve jumped 11 places on the list, to #4. maybe we should send george w. over to luxembourg to have a look about. well, i guess for that to properly work, we’d have to send someone with an open mind and three brain cells. but sending george would be a start.
when’s the last time luxembourg kicked anyone’s ass? well, they sure have now. ours.
hats off to you, luxembourg. you rock.
