Is the US becoming a "Third World" Country?

[Mr.Fitnah]

There has been a long term deliberate effort to destroy our currency and our economy.

 

[midcan5]

Third world status is defined by a wide separation of the rich and the rest of us. In that sense America is already a third world nation. The New Deal and Great Society for fifty plus years moved us forward, it wasn't till Reagan that the slide backward began.

Inequality on the March by J. Bradford DeLong
Project Syndicate

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/United-States-since-World-Since/dp/0521677556/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250512979&sr=1-3]Amazon.com: The United States since 1980 (The World Since 1980) (9780521677554): Dean Baker: Books[/ame]

OpEdNews - Ronald Reagan: Worst President Ever?

 

[JakeStarkey]

The corporatists on destroying the American middle class in the name of American social values. The mindless are being led by the nose.

 

[rdean]

Some comments really jumped out at me. I wish I had a better understanding considering how bold they are:

oreo
Government is not suppose to "compete" with the private sector--they instead can enact laws that protect citizens from ruthless private sector practices.

Just curious. If government has the power to “enact” laws, don’t they already skew that competition? Instead of “competing” directly, don’t they decide “who” competes? By the laws they are able to enact?

Sinatra
Britain, like much of Western Europe, grows weary under the yoke of economic stagnation and ever increasing immigration concerns that have become the hallmarks of the modern liberal legacy...

Yet, it’s in Europe that the center of world physics has moved. The super-collider is being built there. They are building bullet trains and studying low resistance rail for transfer of electrical power. They are making advances in composites being used for airline manufacturer. Frances health care system is now considered the best in the world. What are they doing different?

Ringel05
Thankfully there has been a resurgence by some higher educational providers during the past two decades to apply a much more rounded "classical" education (including our economic system), the type of education that taught people how, not what to think.

“Classical” education? Not sure what that means. Any examples?

Epsilon Delta
I don't know about "becoming" but in terms of its health and public education system, the US has always been curious because their systems operate more like those in the Third World than those of other industrialized countries.

Educational systems operate more like those in the “third world”? I admit, I don’t understand.

Mr. Fitnah
There has been a long term deliberate effort to destroy our currency and our economy.

Destroy our currency? Destroy our economy? I can understand that some are so greedy, they kill the goose that laid the golden egg, but if the goose is laying “gold”, why kill it on purpose? I guess I don’t understand the comment.

 

[Maple]

the public option in this health care plan. 72% of Americans want the remainder of the stimulus money taken back to pay down the debt. It's not working.

 

[VaYank5150]

Third world status is defined by a wide separation of the rich and the rest of us. In that sense America is already a third world nation.

Apparently, the GOP never got the message? Could it have been those pesky tax cuts for the richest Americans?

 

[Sinatra]

the public option in this health care plan. 72% of Americans want the remainder of the stimulus money taken back to pay down the debt. It's not working.

Exactly - whatever economic recover that is taking place is doing so in spite of the ridiculous porkulus bill. Take that money and apply to the debt - that would provide a stimulitive effect in showing the world we are getting serious about putting our own house in order...

 

[VaYank5150]

Take that money and apply to the debt - that would provide a stimulitive effect in showing the world we are getting serious about putting our own house in order...

It would? How, specifically?

 

[Contessa_Sharra]

I thought the term was now obsolete.

Well, the new term is Southern World Countries.

But

We have to be careful using that, however, as some in the Redder States will think we are talking about them specifically. They take umbrage so easily.

 

[tigerbob]

Third world status is defined by a wide separation of the rich and the rest of us. In that sense America is already a third world nation. The New Deal and Great Society for fifty plus years moved us forward, it wasn't till Reagan that the slide backward began.

Inequality on the March by J. Bradford DeLong
Project Syndicate

Amazon.com: The United States since 1980 (The World Since 1980) (9780521677554): Dean Baker: Books

OpEdNews - Ronald Reagan: Worst President Ever?

No it isn't. As a capitalist country America is, by definition, First World. It can't be anything else, no matter who you want to blame.

 

[rdean]

the public option in this health care plan. 72% of Americans want the remainder of the stimulus money taken back to pay down the debt. It's not working.

I think that things may not be so bleak. I'm afraid to cut and paste because I was banned for posting Sarah Palin's "Alaska Living Will Day" proclamation she published when governor.

Here are a few quotes:

"Goldman Sachs and Bank of New York Mellon were among those that repaid money borrowed under the government's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program."

"The banks repaying TARP are some of the industry's largest, including J.P.Morgan Chase & Co., which took $25 billion in TARP funds; American Express Co. for $3.39 billion; Bank of New York Mellon for $3 billion; and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley with $10 billion each."

"BB&T Corp. and U.S. Bancorp. also said they were repaying their TARP money."

"In addition to the money they're returning, the banks have paid Treasury more than $2 billion in dividends that were mandated under the TARP program. Taxpayers also will receive billions in exchange for the warrants, once Treasury and the banks can agree on how to price them."

"With Wednesday's repayments, Treasury will have recovered more than $70 billion distributed under the program, including about $2 billion from earlier repayments by smaller banks."

------------Those quotes are from "Crain's New York Business", hardly a "liberal" publication. Something to think about?

 

[Ringel05]

Some comments really jumped out at me. I wish I had a better understanding considering how bold they are:

Ringel05
Thankfully there has been a resurgence by some higher educational providers during the past two decades to apply a much more rounded "classical" education (including our economic system), the type of education that taught people how, not what to think.

“Classical” education? Not sure what that means. Any examples?

The arts and humanities were the primary undergraduate fields of study prior to the turn of the century. After the 1930s and 40s more concentration was given to the technical areas of education while reducing the required A & H course loads. This trend continued to such a degree that in the 1980s & 90s most (non-humanities) undergraduate majors became in essence glorified vocational training, prep schools for more focused graduate (technical/scientific/business) courses.

 

[Toro]

No.

Its pretty silly to think otherwise. The United States is the richest, greatest, most powerful nation on earth.

 

[Political Junky]

Is America becoming a “Third World” country? I believe it is.

1. After Sputnik, America became concerned that a Soviet Satellite was right over our heads and moved towards and promoted science as a way to fight back. It was vital to our future as a country. Sputnik was a danger that was "right there" and over us day and night.

Well, lately, it hasn’t worked out very well. Many areas of science are no longer taught in lower and middle schools because the schools just don't have the money to "fight the controversy". By ridiculing entire branches of science, some have created a "controversy" out of "mysticism" and made scientists seem either untrustworthy, lying or some kind of "elitist" with an "agenda".
Many don’t see the need for higher education because they believe that "Jesus" will save us. Sounds very “Third World”. Religion is replacing education.

2. Check out the free health clinic setting up shop in LA at the Forum that lasted for a few days. The organizers of this event usually set up shop in Africa or India. But in LA? In California? Who would show up? Turns out thousands. Turns out they had to turn people away.

People spending the night sleeping on sidewalks to get free medical care? In America?

Seeing a little girl getting free glasses. If she didn't get for free there, she wouldn't get any? People saying that the alternative to this health care is "pain"? In America?

This wasn’t “illegals”. This was American families. Many have jobs. They just can’t afford insurance. Some people were seeing the dentist for the first time in years. Even though many were turned away because there were so many, they didn’t scream. They didn’t call names. They were polite and orderly and thankful.

But the question is, "Why would we need to set something up like this in the first place"?

3. Many of our jobs have moved overseas. We are becoming this huge, uneducated labor pool.

So yes, I believe that we are becoming a Third World country. I wish someone could explain how we aren’t.

Yes, the US is a third world nation.
The wealth is in the hands of a few.

 

[tigerbob]

Is America becoming a “Third World” country? I believe it is.

1. After Sputnik, America became concerned that a Soviet Satellite was right over our heads and moved towards and promoted science as a way to fight back. It was vital to our future as a country. Sputnik was a danger that was "right there" and over us day and night.

Well, lately, it hasn’t worked out very well. Many areas of science are no longer taught in lower and middle schools because the schools just don't have the money to "fight the controversy". By ridiculing entire branches of science, some have created a "controversy" out of "mysticism" and made scientists seem either untrustworthy, lying or some kind of "elitist" with an "agenda".
Many don’t see the need for higher education because they believe that "Jesus" will save us. Sounds very “Third World”. Religion is replacing education.

2. Check out the free health clinic setting up shop in LA at the Forum that lasted for a few days. The organizers of this event usually set up shop in Africa or India. But in LA? In California? Who would show up? Turns out thousands. Turns out they had to turn people away.

People spending the night sleeping on sidewalks to get free medical care? In America?

Seeing a little girl getting free glasses. If she didn't get for free there, she wouldn't get any? People saying that the alternative to this health care is "pain"? In America?

This wasn’t “illegals”. This was American families. Many have jobs. They just can’t afford insurance. Some people were seeing the dentist for the first time in years. Even though many were turned away because there were so many, they didn’t scream. They didn’t call names. They were polite and orderly and thankful.

But the question is, "Why would we need to set something up like this in the first place"?

3. Many of our jobs have moved overseas. We are becoming this huge, uneducated labor pool.

So yes, I believe that we are becoming a Third World country. I wish someone could explain how we aren’t.

Yes, the US is a third world nation.
The wealth is in the hands of a few.

That is not how 'third world' is defined.