Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
I know it hurts, but the reality is painfully obvious: the USA is now a 3rd World nation.
Dividing the Earth’s nations into 1st, 2nd and 3rd world has fallen out of favor;apparently it offended sensibilities. It has been replaced by the politically correct developed and developing nations, a terminology which suggests all developing nations are on the pathway to developed-nation status.
What’s been lost in jettisoning the 1st, 2nd and 3rd world categories is the distinction between developing (2nd world) and dysfunctional states (3rd world), states we now label “failed states.”
But 3rd World implied something quite different from “failed state”: failed state refers to a failed government of a nation-state, i.e. a government which no longer fulfills the minimum duties of a functional state: basic security, rule of law, etc.
3rd World referred to a nation-state which was dysfunctional and parasitic for the vast majority of its residents but that worked extremely well for entrenched elites who controlled most of the wealth and political power. Unlike failed states, which by definition are unstable, 3rd World nations are stable, for the reason that they work just fine for the elites who dominate the wealth, power and machinery of governance.
Here are the core characteristics of dysfunctional but stable states that benefit the entrenched few at the expense of the many, i.e. 3rd World nations:
1. Ownership of stocks and other assets is highly concentrated in entrenched elites. The average household is disconnected from the stock market and other measures of wealth; only a thin sliver of households own enough financial/speculative wealth to make an actual difference in their lives.
2. The infrastructure of the nation used by the many is poorly maintained and costly to operate as entrenched elites plunder the funding to pad their payrolls, pensions and sweetheart/insider contracts.
3. The financial/political elites have exclusive access to parallel systems of transport, healthcare, education, etc. The elites avoid trains, subways, lenders, coach-class air transport, standard healthcare and the rest of the decaying, dysfunctional systems they own that extract wealth from the debt-serfs.
They fly on private aircraft, have their own healthcare and legal services, use their privileges to get their offspring into elite universities and institutions and have access to elite banking and lending services that are unavailable to their technocrat lackeys and enforcers.
4. The elites fund lavish monuments to their own glory disguised as “civic or national pride.” These monuments take the form of stadiums, palatial art museums, immense government buildings, etc. Meanwhile the rest of the day-to-day infrastructure decays in various states of dysfunction.
5. There are two classes that only interact in strictly controlled ways: the wealthy, who live in gated, guarded communities and who rule all the institutions, public and private, and the debt-serfs, who are divided into well-paid factotums, technocrat lackeys and enforcers who serve the interests of the entrenched elites and rest of the populace who own virtually nothing and have zero power.
The elites make a PR show of being a commoner only to burnish the absurd illusion that debt-serf votes actually matter. (They don’t.)
6. Cartels and quasi-monopolies are parasitically extracting the wealth of the nation for their elite owners and managers. Google: quasi-monopoly. Facebook: quasi-monopoly. Healthcare: cartel. Banking: cartel. National defense: cartel. National Security: cartel. Corporate mainstream media: cartel. Higher education: cartel. Student loans: cartel. I think you get the point: every key institution or function is controlled by cartels or quasi-monopolies that serve the interests of the few via parasitic exploitation of the powerless.
7. The elites use the extreme violence and repressive powers of the government to suppress, marginalize and/or destroy any dissent. There are two systems of “law”: one for the elites ($10 million penalties for ripping off the public for $10 billion, no personal liability for outright fraud) and one for the unprotected-unprivileged: “tenners” (10-year prison sentences) for minor drug infractions, renditions or assassinations (all “legal,” of course) and institutional forces of violence (bust down your door on the rumor you’ve got drugs, confiscate your car because we caught you with cash, so you must be a drug dealer, and so on, in sickening profusion).
8. Dysfunctional institutions with unlimited power to extract money via junk fees, licensing fees, parking tickets, penalties, late fees, etc., all without recourse. Mess with the extractive, parasitic bureaucracy and you’ll regret it: there’s no recourse other than another layer of well-paid self-serving functionaries that would make Kafka weep.
9. The well-paid factotums, bureaucrats, technocrat lackeys and enforcers who fatten their own skims and pensions at the expense of the public and slavishly serve the interests of the entrenched elites embrace the delusion that they’re “wealthy” and “the system is working great.” These deluded servants of the elites will defend the dysfunctional system because it serves their interests to do so.
The more dysfunctional the institution, the greater their power, so they actively increase the dysfunction at every opportunity.
The USA is definitively a 3rd World nation. Read the list above and then try to argue the USA is not a 3rd World nation. Try arguing against the facts displayed in this chart:
I know it hurts, but the reality is painfully obvious: the USA is now a 3rd World nation.
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Interesting, no one wants to leave a comment.
I guess the truth does hurt.
tldr
Greetings,
Every now and again I get a “you were right” from someone that has known me for a while. The most recent “you were right” has been a decades old prediction that the USA would turn itself into Brazil. It would be a banana republic with only the very rich, the very poor and very little in between.
We are already seeing this in California as those that live in their $5k per month apartments look out into a sea of tents and people crapping on the sidewalks. Frankly, it isn’t possible to pretend it isn’t there because it is everywhere here in California. Whistling past the graveyard only works for so long dont ya know?
If we follow Brazil’s lead then we can expect Death Squads to start visiting the poor that dare step out of line or that spend too much time to near the elite.
We aren’t nearly a 3rd world country. We have infrastructure: roads / interstates / communication / technology / medicine / sanitation / relative safety.
The problem is as the US (and other developed countries) has grown out of the institutions that once were – in the past. For instance: Although we are capitalists – the stock market model no longer represents opportunity for investments by the ‘little guy’. Similarly, politics is controlled by PAC’s and big donors. Similarly, farming has been taken over by corporations. No ‘little guy’ is going to start a car company or airplane company – it’s all been done. Most Universities and their courses of study are obsolete and lead to nowhere for their graduates – except debt.
The US succeeded because of natural resources and a lot of land. We were first in the industrial revolution, and then the second industrial revolution (Henry Ford, Edison,….). Then came the Tech revolution.
Now there is no ‘revolution’ to fuel economic expansion, and give the ‘little guy’ a chance. There for we see the Millennials dumb founded / floundering / playing video games – cause there is nowhere to go. There is no clear path to a future.
I hope (hope doesn’t do anything) that the Fourth Turning will bring some sort of correction to the current mess.
Yes and no…
3rd world nations are also characterized by corrupt and inefficient government at all levels. At the lowest level, cops take bribes, building permits are so expensive and red-taped that most construction on the lowest end of society is under the table as are most other economic transactions. Starting a legitimate business can take years and require countless bribes.
The US has not sunk to this level – yet. While only moranic cuckservatives refer anymore to this nation as a republic without irony, the vestiges of the old republic are still clear at the state and local level. In most US states you can start a business for a few hunded bucks or less in one stop to the state commerce dept. Copfuks may kill you without reason but they don’t generally take bribes, nor do judges or local bureaucrats. While in the US the homeless are worse off than the tarpaper shacks of depression years or barrios in South America, for the rest of the poor, the quality of their personal infrastructure is quite high…solid frame houses (or trailers), indoor plumbing, electricity, sanitation, hvac…etc. Most have cars (in third and many second world nations, only the rich and middle class drive cars, poor people drive motorcycles).
Otherwise I agree, but this is a snapshot of today. Things are not looking up for the US proles and they have the benefit of the structures from a more prosperous past to inherit, which of course is lacking in third world nations.
Back when I learned the world definitions the first was developed non communist countries, second were communist countries and third were non aligned countries. Now the meaning is first world developed countries and third world shithole countries with nary a mention of second world..But, good article.
We absolutely have become a 3rd world nation which is exactly what we were promised by the last 3 or 4 presidents and all the game show whores in Congress and the senate ! To make matters worse we are moving full speed ahead to becoming a “SHIT HOLE” nation !
I called this spread of wealth extraction and elitist control over 30 plus years ago as our dismantling of industry went from a few hot spots to an epidemic literally killing our nation . As this article stated there will be just enough trickle down wealth and benefits to keep the gears greased to government minions especially the badge wearing variety who feel that that thimble full of authority entrusted to them becomes a license to steal (Baltimore City police force) and of course the thin blue line of “HEROS” close ranks with all government offices violating public trust .
Yep it’s 3rd world in route to shit hole !
The media is in “Hey Squirrel” mode yet again. Russians, sports and celebrity scandals are forecast, turn off the boob tube for the foreseeable future. Those are NOT the boobs you’re looking for. Remember its the ghey and the putrid they have on the air now. Oprah and the attorney of the Porn Star who slept with Trump will challenge Old Witch Hillary for the 2020 Washington Screw Job. Every single channel, every single time.
The dispensing of standards is a NECESSARY COMPONENT HERE. Even the Lowest Standards are now OUT OF REACH. Buh, buh, but, where I live still looks OK says the deluded one. We cannot judge the whole horde of aliens, we need to look for a cherry picked, carefully edited, dressed up phony to justify these insane notions, says cuck-a doodle yang.
I know a Good Dalek. She’s not genocidal at all. Here she is: “Hi, my name is Clara Oswald. Let’s be friends. All Daleks are not bad.” Insert Schadenfreude here. Its the new normal. Do not embrace the hate. The hate leads to order and the end of Crazy Old Wizards that belong to an insular cult that only recruits young orphans that do not have parents or guardians. That’s completely legitimate.
All White Europeans are racist though. Hitler, Hitler, Hitler.
Jan Brady is TAKING OVER THE WORLD.
There have always been elites, and they always did what they could to keep the wealth in their own families. What’s different now is the labels and technology have changed. The motivations and the fact that it takes money to make money hasn’t changed. Bread & circuses are not new, and neither is politicians promising freebees that will be paid for by someone else in exchange for votes. Unthinking people motivated by sloth, greed, pride and envy who sell their votes to a POS politician isn’t new either.
SOS, just the cycle repeating itself with updates for the present time.
As for third world, bah, show me a third world country where the poor are fat, have air conditioning, smartphones, big screen TVs and access to credit to pay for more stuff.
Does this sound third world?
– * Americans spend over $60,000,000,000 to lose weight, every year! That’s sixty billion dollars. * Considering the fact that 75 million Americans are actively trying to lose weight, that’s $800 per person per year! * About 3 billion dollars are spent on weight loss chains such as Weight Watchers.
All that said, there is zero doubt that establishment politicians want the US to become third world. That’s why they push to import 3rd world people. They want people who are docile, grateful and who believe all their lies without questioning.
Nothing is as it seems.
… and it’s all according to plan.
Perhaps nobody remembers, but I seem to remember the 1, 2, and 3 represented 1st the Capitalist West, 2nd the Communist East, and 3rd the shithole countries the 1st and 2nd pit against each other as proxies. If he wants to re-work it, fine by me, but let’s not lose sight of what it originally meant. Most people have no idea who was supposed to be the 2nd world. It might be more appropriate to consider the US sinking into the 2nd world, since many of our idiots embrace Communism and the government is full of Communists, like Barry, Bubbah and Co, Rahm, Valerie Jarrett, etc.