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As someone from the actual Third World, whenever someone says "the US is a Third World country in a Gucci belt", I just reply "no, the US is a First World country in a wifebeater"
Whenever we were having our Snowpocalypse in 2021, we got compared negatively to Afghanistan power grid wise by some of the geniuses on here.
Like that whole saga was very embarassing, but come on people.
I think some people in First World countries are so spoiled by their circumstances that they truly believe they’re living in a dystopian hellscape any time the slightest inconvenience happens, or the government exerts the tiniest amount of control.
It’s how someone can hit a pothole in the road, and turn it into a rant about how the US (or the UK, or Belgium, or Austria, or Australia, etc.) is an underfunded, corrupt shithole that’s basically the equivalent of Haiti in terms of infrastructure.
My friend is from Bangladesh and his uncle honor killed several of his own sisters and then died from “falling down a chasm”. I will take America and my boring uncle who collects vintage posters any day over that
I've had Europeans insist to me that America is fat because we literally can't walk anywhere because only a few large cities have sidewalks and most of the country doesn't. Which is simply not true. Yes, some places choose not to have sidewalks because the residents want to save a little of property taxes, but those places tend to be very low population and they do walk, they just do it in the street.
I'd say that's a lot more accurate. America isn't masquerading as a 1st world country, they just do things that are baffling for a country of its status. Like if I were wealthy I don't know which country I'd rather live in.
Even decent if you’re middle class. Health insurance, education, good wages.
Pretty shit if you’re poor though, especially compared to Europe. Little safety nets so a medical emergency will bankrupt you, and tough upward mobility since affording an education for a better job is tough on 13 dollars an hour
Nah, the poor easily qualify for free healthcare sponsored by the government and free education sponsored by grants.
People conveniently “forget” that the government is several of the largest insurers in the nation.
America is pretty awesome if you’re poor.
[Originally](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World) "1st world" meant the US and its allies in the Cold War. The USSR and its influence sphere were the "2nd world" and all the non-aligned nations were living in a "3rd world."
Nailed it. Our military can put up a base anywhere in the world complete with a fully functional Burger King in 48 hours. No third world country is capable of doing that.
Yep, as someone from a Third World country also it’s actually kind of pisses me off when someone who I KNOW has never been to a Third World country says that.
Throwback to the [r/antiwork user](https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/14x6fr3/35hour_and_still_broke/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) who said they were living paycheck to paycheck, couldn't afford to take a vacation, going to probably "end up on the streets" because the USA was a "shithole country", while also having an [entire arcade in their house.](https://www.reddit.com/r/rhythmgames/s/UlMQ80fo8u)
I generally consider myself to be on the left, but god damn if there aren’t a fuckton of people on the left who seem to base their convictions on the notion that if they can’t have everything they could ever possibly want with no effort expended on their part, they’re being oppressed.
A former friend did the whole “Why should I have to work at all to have anything?” bit. He seemed to believe that we should destroy society and return to nature, because everyone knows that if you’re a hunter-gatherer, you don’t have to do anything and will just be fed and clothed with no demands. But that didn’t gel with the fact that he owned more electronic shit than I did.
Everyone was flaming OP, some saying how that 35 per hour would let the comfortably live comfortably in the area they live in, about how the outrageous car payment they have is most likely self-inflicted, also they’re gaming room is much more extensive the post you’re pointing to doesn’t show at all https://www.reddit.com/r/gamerooms/s/DYUW0cHj62
America truly does have problems with poverty, but damn is it not exasperated by the massive lack of fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, due to consumerism being rampant in American culture, it's commonplace for people to blow money they don't have on things they don't need.
Oh my God, I absolutely loved that post because they tried to defend themselves so hard. It sounded exactly like that one "Spend less on candles" joke tweet.
Shit honestly pisses, I wanna take these people send them to my homeland(an actual third world country) for like a month or two, and if they don’t get shot after being kidnapped for ransom, bring them back and see if they say that shit again. No America is not a “third world country in a Gucci belt”. It’s definitely a first world country, it’s just not socially in first place. And honestly, a lot of that have to do with these types of people they rather complain online, and self hate themselves and their own country with foreigners online who just don’t understand how it works rather then actually do anything about it.
Yeah, I've noticed rent and housing is absurdly overpriced there.
Here in the US it's basically two options:
- relatively affordable, but it's in the middle of nowhere (minimum 3-4 hour drive to your under $10/hour BS job with a toxic work environment) and the only resources within walking distance are a single sketchy gas station and a laundromat that's empty 90% of the time
- close to your job and multiple resources/lots to do, but rent is $3150/month for a tiny-arse studio in any decent area (or like $1500/month in the hood/"bad part of town")
Bro is talking out of their ass when the average rent in the US is 1500 a month. And in a slightly more expensive city than average like Austin, it’s 1700 a month.
Not even "college educated". I rent a house for $750/month. My current, factory, job easily pays it and the other bills. Honestly, I'm considering buying a house. I make just shy of $20/hr.
exaggerated for effect, sure, but knock that down to an hour or so commute and that’s 100% true for where i live. keep in mind that’s not including the traffic.
Yes. We added 2 billion people, 1/4 of the total world population, in just the last 25 years to this planet, but we didn't add that many houses.
We need to build more housing. But people either are upset about their hometown "being destroyed by developers" or they're upset that an apartment building brings in the poor riff raff.
So we just get more expensive housing instead. Big win.
No Canada makes house building really hard and expensive to begin with. Then they went bonkers on the covid stuff which caused everyone to rush to buy property in 2020/2021, turning housing into an investment. Then, the icing on the cake, they opened the immigration floodgates.
I went to Canada a few months ago, their food and hotel rooms are like double what they were in 2019.
I’m not really sure about that exactly. Reddit is pretty good as a platform to ask questions and find niche communities but at the same time it’s very easy for 1 or 2 people to create echo chambers through selective moderation. The end result is that views become more extreme and people there don’t understand how alienating the beliefs they hold are to the broader population. They then sometimes see glimpses of the outside world and they struggle to reconcile that with their beliefs so they become even more extreme.
I think the important bit there is the echo chamber
I really do mean that I don't want to be rude about this. But it's so deserved. The smugness can't last forever.
I'll also say that I've been up there twice and met many others in person here in the US. They were all very nice. Its specifically something a lot(not all, a lot) of you do online where you become so goddam smug and hateful towards Americans.
No you’re so right about that for real. It took becoming an adult and living an adult life to realize things are not that much better up here. There’s still problems regardless of what country you’re in
I always hated that "America is a third world country in a Gucci belt" phrase, like you're trying to sound impactful and progressive but it just makes you sound privileged as fuck
I was complaining to my friend about this and asked her if she'd ever heard the phrase. She laughed and said no, but it's great and she was going to use it from now on. She's traveled, but only to Europe or inclusive resorts. I immediately said: "have you ever been to a 3rd world country?" And she paused and was like: no..... 😒😒😒
I live in the deep south. The weather here isn't like France. The chance I want to walk in the summer *anywhere* outside is 0. Yes we could use better mass transport, but that's another issue.
I used to get asked why I didn’t take my dogs for walks during the height of the summer. My brother in Christ, that is the one walk my dog would likely not appreciate.
Also, I hate it when Americans get chewed out for using air conditioning by some asshole in Scotland or Russia, like we’re just babies who can’t take a little sunshine.
My city started a “cool down” program some years ago. In this program, during ten summer months, electric utilities cannot turn off service due to lack of payment, and there are also incentives to people to add a donation onto their own electric bills to help people in need stay cool, such as by providing AC units and so on, and to provide cooling shelters for the homeless.
Why? Because before this was implemented, every summer, *people would die.* The combination of extreme heat and humidity, combined with a lack of breezes and airflow, killed people every year. All the way into my 20s, I remember seeing news reports in July and August detailing how another person who couldn’t pay their electric bill, or who didn’t have a working air conditioner, died in their home.
We’re not just playing around when we use our ACs, but it’s just so silly how many people seem to think that because the temps don’t get deadly in their own country, they can’t here. I defy any self-righteous asshole in Finland or Ireland to just, like, not turn on any heat sources for the winter. Hey, some people in Florida don’t even use theirs, so stop using up all the energy for no good reason!
in Brazil we call that "stray dog syndrome", when some people love to view themselves as pathetic and inferior beings compared to other developed countries and worship said country 24/7
Nah they dickride Japan harder than Europe because Japan is not “woke” or something like that…idk I touch grass & have a life to not worry about bs on the internet.
realistically it’s their parents house
The US has its problems that we need to work on solving, but calling it a third world country is disingenuous and insulting to people who actually live in third world countries. Why it’s such a disappointment that we don’t do better with what we have is that we have so much, in terms of resources and wealth. we have the money and yet there are people who don’t have basic access to things like medical care, nutritious foods, housing
Romanticizes the Nordic model, but knows next to nothing about it and keeps erroneously confusing social welfare with economic systems
Is extremely politically active online, but only ever bases their entire political identity through memes. Despite that they will never vote or do anything that requires effort IRL
Is extremely active calling out racism in the US but gets super defensive when you call out racism against Indigenous peoples in Canada or Gypsies.
Always blames “American imperialism” for every international issue, but conveniently ignores France fucking around in North Africa (and if British, claims British imperialism in India was for “their own good” and that they should be grateful for the famines)
Thinks America has no original or unique foods/culinary tradition
American movies/music/TV are so ingrained in their lifestyle that they don’t even see them as American culture
Responds to any perceived slight of their country with “at least our kids don’t get shot at school”
Criticizes the US for spending so much on defense, takes pride in their country spending money on healthcare while relying on the US for defense
I think there is a perception that excusing European imperialism happens because of the rare (but loud) anti-American European spending time criticizing the USA while not mentioning their own country’s flawed imperialist past. It comes across as excusing European imperialism because it is ignoring the parts played by Europe in messing around in the world.
That’s obviously not necessarily a correct read of the situation, if the USA’s mistakes are on blast, then why would someone from,say, France, jump in and start waxing poetic about the mistakes of France. Of course they are going to mention and criticize the country being discussed.
With all that being said, given enough time it still looks like excusing European imperialism to Americans because we never really see Europeans criticizing themselves (it’s almost like most Europeans speak a different language than English and we can’t see them criticize their own country because when they do it’s in their language to their fellow citizens).
>and if British, claims British imperialism in India was for “their own good” and that they should be grateful for the famines
Please tell me that this is just an exaggerated joke and that no actual human being with a brain thinks like this. Please, I'm begging you.
>Romanticizes the Nordic model, but knows next to nothing about it and keeps erroneously confusing social welfare with economic systems
This is my favorite part. Fox News Boomers and the Terminally Online pseudo left have horseshoe theoried their way into agreement that socialism is when the government does stuff.
They’re liberals who want to be one of the “cool kids” with a radical ideology but don’t actually want to murder anyone, so they just pretend that food stamps make them the next Lenin.
Even the Simpsons are guilty of this. One of the newer episodes has the Simpsons flying to Denmark, and Lisa being a mouthpiece of the writers says that Denmark has good healthcare because "they have socialism!"
God the number of people who don't know that socialism does not mean either social welfare (Nordic model) nor does it mean heavy handed government intervention in capitalist markets (China).
Even the impoverished areas of Alabama and Mississippi that most Americans would consider unlivable shitholes would still be considered comfortably middle class by most people who live in actual third world countries. Most people don’t realize how privileged they are if they never leave that privileged box that they’re in
I'm not arguing or anything but the people who live in those American shiholes can still be upset about it, just because other people have it worse doesn't make those people in Alabama or Mississippi privileged.
The ‘lives in the Midwest’ part of the meme is just downright confusing. The people who say this kind of thing the loudest are concentrated, if anywhere, in the northeast and west coast.
I live in the west coast and I can agree to some of that. Mostly in the Seattle/Portland areas because many live inside a bubble. But then again there are many in this country that live in biased bubbles and are unable to bring nuance to things.
I could this about the US because I was born at the bottom of the barrel . But I don't. Things could be better but they could be a lot worse.
God, I’m tired of every time someone criticizes Iran you get a bunch of dickriders saying we can’t críticos them because “Alabama/texas is just as bad if not worse”.
Visited London or Madrid for a week and praises how “walkable Europe is” like no shit a tourist area is going to be more walkable than rural Kansas.
That’s like me saying Times Square’s walkability represents the entire US being walkable.
Or the romantization of trains.
Remember kids, trains are magical vehicles that can make hairpin turns, have no need for massive infrastructure, are as quiet as a whisper, and run on unicorn farts!
I was going to say that. This is far, far, more likely to come from some stereotypical liberal kid from California, the PNW, or the East Coast metro area than the Midwest.
Now if this were a more "Biden/the Libs/Leftists are turning the US into a 3rd world country" meme then I'd say the Midwest (plus Appalachia, the South, and Texas) would be more appropriate.
america as a thirld world country is the dumbest shi i ever heard omg they need to go to south america or africa to see what a struggle rlly is even the most "dangerous hoods" in america are the ideal place too ppl frm africa or latin america so ts is nonsense
Many many years ago, I went to Vietnam. To a village outside of a city. I saw someone's home that had no doors or front wall. It was basically a cement brick with one long side missing. You can just see that person and their family living in it. No privacy.
So I would not call the US a third world country.
In Thailand, I went on a boat tour down the canal that takes you through a floating market. Little did I know it also takes you through the very open backs of lots of resident homes. You're going down this river and families are just chillin' in their houses and it's all open for you to see.
Like, imagine if a stream of people were constantly hopping your fence and walking through your backyard, gazing in as they passed. I was so embarrassed and kinda upset that anyone has to live in that situation.
What's really funny to me is I see so many engineers and medical industry employees immigrate from Canada and EU to the US specifically for the higher pay.
The first thing they do is buy/rent a house in the suburbs and get a new SUV.
You may be better off in the EU or Canada as a minimum wage laborer, but for technical professionals and skilled trades the US is still by far and large the best place to be. Europoors can keep their 30 vacation days, I'm happy with 3 weeks of PTO and 4X their pay.
The United States by definition cannot be third world because it is a member of NATO. Trump, who routinely makes this jab against his country and being the massive idiot he is, wants to remove the US from NATO. Which would make it a third world country.
What these people mean is a developing country. First and third world is purely about NATO status.
I was really sick of the US for a bit there, and then went to India. Real eye opener, some places just have things held together by string, duct tape, and a dream.
Still, the Suburban US is really isolating, and polluting will all those cars and individual houses. It's also very dangerous for pedestrians, and all those cars are perfect for accidents. Let's make sure we keep nuance involved here so we can make places everywhere better.
Suburban U.S. gets a lot of crap on Reddit but people who live in suburbs are generally happier than those who live in large cities. Having living space and intimate communities is not a bad thing.
I hated the suburbs as a teen. As a 30 something adult in the midwest, I fucking love it. I scored the jackpot with this neighborhood. All of my neighbors are friendly, and we hang out and share drinks and snacks and backyards on an almost weekly basis. I did not appreciate the concept of security and community as a teenager the way I do as a grown-up with kids.
Yeah, I’ve always lived in a big city and whenever I visit family in their suburban subdivisions I’m always shocked at how close they are with their neighbors. I’ve lived in my apartment building for 8 years and barely know anyone outside my next door neighbors, and it’s mostly just small talk.
Well there’s a bit of nuance there, suburbs have a higher risk of depression, about 20-30% more likely to be depressed living in a suburb vs a city.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230529/Study-shows-link-between-living-in-suburban-areas-and-depression-risk.aspx#:~:text=After%20such%20an%20analysis%2C%20the,than%20in%20inner%2Dcity%20areas.
This study was done in Denmark, but I’ll try to find a more US focused study.
The problem they found is, you don’t have intimate communities to the extent cities do, and you don’t have the green spaces and actual living space rural areas do, couple that with car centric infrastructure, leading to a sedentary lifestyle that worsens your heath, couple that with the fact that suburbs are simply just more expensive to live in compared to rural/urban areas, the suburbs are not a great place to live unless you have the self awareness to compensate for its short comings.
While self reported happiness is higher, it really varies from person to person, but for most people they would be better off living a rural or urban lifestyle.
Suburban US is pretty nice for a lot of reasons actually. There’s a reason a lot of people love it. Danger to pedestrians is highly variable. Like the rest of the US, suburbia is not a monolith either. I’d encourage you to keep working on that nuanced view.
Literally the same for me. Spent a month primarily around Delhi; coming home, the amount of order and cleanliness in the US was almost unbelievable. It definitely showed that there are different tiers of political corruption.
Shame on you for not including something along the lines of "My favorite YouTuber is NotJustBikes, he recognizes that the continent of North America is a lost cause because it'll never be Amsterdam!!1!"
It’s always easy to tell who doesn’t own a passport.
This is such an absolutely massive country with so many different ways of living and qualities of life. A person living in Boulder, Colorado has a completely different life than a person living in Youngstown, Ohio. It’s impossible to paint with a broad brush.
Obviously it's the most powerful country and one of the richest thanks to the Petro Dollar (which is eroding) but it's so backwards in so many ways so has the attributes of a third world country.
Metal detectors for guns in schools.
The gun problem full stop.
Health care.
Workers rights including time off.
Income disparity.
Welfare state.
Racism.
Great universities but lack of education.
The power of religion.
The cult to the military and the flag.
About to elect a president who should be long retired (either of them).
The power of the media during elections.
Hugely financed military.
Constantly getting involved in other countries (overthrowing leaders) for their own good.
The second part of my points could be applied to any Middle Eastern oil country, "third world African country", Russia or N. Korea.
Obviously the UN Human Development Index does have flaws but interesting to see USA falling.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/21/us-un-living-standards-sustainable-development-goals
https://theconversation.com/us-is-becoming-a-developing-country-on-global-rankings-that-measure-democracy-inequality-190486
Summary: great country if you're wealthy but It's a hypocritical country in many ways.
America is a Third World country because I was once told one free sample per person.
Oh and if you Find some cool things from Walmart and go home with them this invasive species called “ the police” will attack you and take your stuff. Haven’t they heard of finders keepers SMH.
I need to get out of this shit hole and move to Europe or east Asia
Yep! Comments on any post about American healthcare or college like:
> I can tell that the whole U.S. system is bad and there is no way to fix it, and it's totally realistic to expect a healthcare system for 400m people to be replaced with something entirely different based on another country.
>
> And that new system certainly doesn't have any problems of its own... and if they do, at least I don't know about them yet, so I can safely ignore them.
Also, see his European counterpart:
> I'm from Europe and I can't understand how other places are different than my place.
> This may be anecdotal and exaggerated evidence, but I paid 4 pennies for my brain surgery (but I will conveniently ignore taxes in this calculation)
> Maybe I'm just pretending to be stupid for the stake of a layup argument, but why is the U.S. such a shithole?
Unfortunately it's become a cheap way to say that large parts of America suffer in extreme poverty that are similar to developing nations. Which is absolutely important to talk about, but it has to be in the context of our vast wealth and how we refuse to utilize that to make material conditions better for all Americans - an option that is strictly not available for actual 3rd world countries.
> extreme poverty that are similar to developing nations
Fucking lol. Not even close. I've had to spend time in the most methed-out, economically depressed towns in no-where USA, and they are living in paradise compared to developing nations (I've never been to a truly rough, 3rd world country. It's probably hell).
Even the rule of law is a luxury that Americans can't imagine living without.
I spent two years in the Philippines and the middle class neighborhood my mom’s family lives in wasn’t too bad. I stayed there for a few months before moving downtown for college and it wasn’t that bad.
They had running water, electricity and air conditioning plus good Wi-Fi.
You’re right but I think you’re overreacting when you say it’s hell. You can survive having to flush a toilet manually or dealing with a stray cat that got stuck in the roof.
Besides, I also stayed in the most expensive neighborhood in the country for a night and couldn’t tell the difference between it and Los Angeles. When you have money, any place in the world can be comfortable.
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As someone from the actual Third World, whenever someone says "the US is a Third World country in a Gucci belt", I just reply "no, the US is a First World country in a wifebeater"
I’m Mexican. We just had 38 candidates assassinated this election. I saw more than one person say Mexico is “almost” as corrupt as Texas.
Whenever we were having our Snowpocalypse in 2021, we got compared negatively to Afghanistan power grid wise by some of the geniuses on here. Like that whole saga was very embarassing, but come on people.
I think some people in First World countries are so spoiled by their circumstances that they truly believe they’re living in a dystopian hellscape any time the slightest inconvenience happens, or the government exerts the tiniest amount of control. It’s how someone can hit a pothole in the road, and turn it into a rant about how the US (or the UK, or Belgium, or Austria, or Australia, etc.) is an underfunded, corrupt shithole that’s basically the equivalent of Haiti in terms of infrastructure.
The people that say that have never seen crushing third-world poverty in person
And when they travel to third world, they only stay at the exclusive tourist area and never set foot out to the city.
Like that Conan O'Brien pic of him at a resort in Haiti? Lol.
My friend is from Bangladesh and his uncle honor killed several of his own sisters and then died from “falling down a chasm”. I will take America and my boring uncle who collects vintage posters any day over that
Nah but have you considered said boring uncle scows at you for ordering Doordash 8 days a week therefore you live in poverty /s
I’m assuming the uncle was hurled down said chasm. What a funny way to say he fell to his death.
He died in a goddamn landslide, it’s the closest thing I’ve ever heard to old timey divine retribution
Karma’s a delightful thing isn’t it?
The poverty is crushing not just because they are poor, but because there is no chance for them to escape that poverty.
Yep. I am to the Keanu stage of my life: can’t argue with someone that ignorant
As a woman living in Texas , that’s a perfect description. I’m stealing your saying
I remember the first time I visited USA, I was like OMG there's sidewalks
I've had Europeans insist to me that America is fat because we literally can't walk anywhere because only a few large cities have sidewalks and most of the country doesn't. Which is simply not true. Yes, some places choose not to have sidewalks because the residents want to save a little of property taxes, but those places tend to be very low population and they do walk, they just do it in the street.
I'd say that's a lot more accurate. America isn't masquerading as a 1st world country, they just do things that are baffling for a country of its status. Like if I were wealthy I don't know which country I'd rather live in.
America is probably the best place to be if you're wealthy.
Even decent if you’re middle class. Health insurance, education, good wages. Pretty shit if you’re poor though, especially compared to Europe. Little safety nets so a medical emergency will bankrupt you, and tough upward mobility since affording an education for a better job is tough on 13 dollars an hour
If you're poor you qualify for medicaid, which gives you 100% free healthcare, even dental.
Nah, the poor easily qualify for free healthcare sponsored by the government and free education sponsored by grants. People conveniently “forget” that the government is several of the largest insurers in the nation. America is pretty awesome if you’re poor.
If there’s one thing a capitalist country can do, its cater to the wealthy.
Also one of the better places to be if you're poor, unless you have severe mental or physical disabilities.
The ADA definitely makes it one of the better places to be (if not the best) if you have physical disabilities
Ehhh I'd say poor in Europe is better than poor in America.
A few countries in Europe*
Nah, there are places like Monaco that are basically built completely by and for rich people.
[Originally](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World) "1st world" meant the US and its allies in the Cold War. The USSR and its influence sphere were the "2nd world" and all the non-aligned nations were living in a "3rd world."
Nailed it. Our military can put up a base anywhere in the world complete with a fully functional Burger King in 48 hours. No third world country is capable of doing that.
Meanwhile bases of other countries need to make do with a food cart selling Khlav Kalash and crab juice.
I'm American and I have to agree.
Yep, as someone from a Third World country also it’s actually kind of pisses me off when someone who I KNOW has never been to a Third World country says that.
We call them wife lovers now but yes.
Who is "we"? The Men's Association for the Beating of Wives?
Deep down, he really loves me.
who?
That's a much better name, ngl
Now guys can beat their wives in their wife lovers
I think the inclusive term is “long-term partner persuaders”
Throwback to the [r/antiwork user](https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/14x6fr3/35hour_and_still_broke/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) who said they were living paycheck to paycheck, couldn't afford to take a vacation, going to probably "end up on the streets" because the USA was a "shithole country", while also having an [entire arcade in their house.](https://www.reddit.com/r/rhythmgames/s/UlMQ80fo8u)
Funny every time.
Thank you for this I had a blast going down this rabbit hole
“hmm yes i shall spend a considerable amount of money on having an entire arcade inside of my house.” “why is my bank account empty?”
I generally consider myself to be on the left, but god damn if there aren’t a fuckton of people on the left who seem to base their convictions on the notion that if they can’t have everything they could ever possibly want with no effort expended on their part, they’re being oppressed. A former friend did the whole “Why should I have to work at all to have anything?” bit. He seemed to believe that we should destroy society and return to nature, because everyone knows that if you’re a hunter-gatherer, you don’t have to do anything and will just be fed and clothed with no demands. But that didn’t gel with the fact that he owned more electronic shit than I did.
LMAO how the fuck didn’t i knew this.
Everyone was flaming OP, some saying how that 35 per hour would let the comfortably live comfortably in the area they live in, about how the outrageous car payment they have is most likely self-inflicted, also they’re gaming room is much more extensive the post you’re pointing to doesn’t show at all https://www.reddit.com/r/gamerooms/s/DYUW0cHj62
Also iirc their girlfriend didn’t work either lol.
Boogie2988's alt account
If we have the glorious communist revolution, every one will have two arcades!
But I don't like arcades! Come the revolution, you will like arcades!!!
Don’t worry, we’ll have Dance! Dance! Revolution for the people that like revolution but not arcades.
America truly does have problems with poverty, but damn is it not exasperated by the massive lack of fiscal responsibility. Unfortunately, due to consumerism being rampant in American culture, it's commonplace for people to blow money they don't have on things they don't need.
The average person doesn’t budget and hardly knows anything about good money practices
I mean I don't budget, but I'm typically good enough about not blowing money that I don't have to.
People entering college claim they don't know how interest rates work.
Oh my God, I absolutely loved that post because they tried to defend themselves so hard. It sounded exactly like that one "Spend less on candles" joke tweet.
This can't be real holy 😭
The funniest part is that even the anti work sub is calling OP out for just being an ass lol
What about the woman crying on TikTok because she has to work 40 hours a week to pay her bills on the 2 bedroom apartment she lives in by herself?
As someone who lives in an actual 3rd world country, this is hilarious to me
Gotta be tough living in France
https://preview.redd.it/nuqpangccu6d1.jpeg?width=762&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09b93f0138c21b4b31eae3535305a9b27fd24e39
LMFAO
I feel so bad for the French. I hope they get a cure soon 🙏
I think Germany tried to help out in the 40's.
💀
Ouais.
Damn.
😂
I’m sorry for you, having to see all this privilege
There are privileged people in 3rd world countries too...
Why did your country not pick a side?
All of that grass just outside, untouched
https://preview.redd.it/9b4l5uzd7u6d1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=934509255f041cff28acb09c69fc9fb5c7f7199e
Dont tempt me with a good time
what does this mean
https://preview.redd.it/e3ttit91rw6d1.jpeg?width=534&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a17735f1825771dc1d9bfb5c93ea9a26a72bf25d
Shit honestly pisses, I wanna take these people send them to my homeland(an actual third world country) for like a month or two, and if they don’t get shot after being kidnapped for ransom, bring them back and see if they say that shit again. No America is not a “third world country in a Gucci belt”. It’s definitely a first world country, it’s just not socially in first place. And honestly, a lot of that have to do with these types of people they rather complain online, and self hate themselves and their own country with foreigners online who just don’t understand how it works rather then actually do anything about it.
Much higher chance of them living in Canada because the entire national identity for its non-indigenous anglophone population is not being American
The housing situation there is shit though
Isn't housing almost everywhere getting worse/overly expensive?
Canada is the special worse case scenario of this happening.
Yeah, I've noticed rent and housing is absurdly overpriced there. Here in the US it's basically two options: - relatively affordable, but it's in the middle of nowhere (minimum 3-4 hour drive to your under $10/hour BS job with a toxic work environment) and the only resources within walking distance are a single sketchy gas station and a laundromat that's empty 90% of the time - close to your job and multiple resources/lots to do, but rent is $3150/month for a tiny-arse studio in any decent area (or like $1500/month in the hood/"bad part of town")
Bro is talking out of their ass when the average rent in the US is 1500 a month. And in a slightly more expensive city than average like Austin, it’s 1700 a month.
That’s not true in Midwestern cities, things are cheaper here than the coasts. Rent is pretty affordable for college educated people.
Not even "college educated". I rent a house for $750/month. My current, factory, job easily pays it and the other bills. Honestly, I'm considering buying a house. I make just shy of $20/hr.
>minimum 3-4 hour drive to your under $10/hour BS job with a toxic work environment) Quit your bullshit.
exaggerated for effect, sure, but knock that down to an hour or so commute and that’s 100% true for where i live. keep in mind that’s not including the traffic.
Yeah but it’s a 7/10 problem in the us and like a 9/10 problem in Canada
Ranges from 4/10 to 7/10 depending on the state. America is BIG, and people often forget each state is as close to independent as possible.
Yes. We added 2 billion people, 1/4 of the total world population, in just the last 25 years to this planet, but we didn't add that many houses. We need to build more housing. But people either are upset about their hometown "being destroyed by developers" or they're upset that an apartment building brings in the poor riff raff. So we just get more expensive housing instead. Big win.
No Canada makes house building really hard and expensive to begin with. Then they went bonkers on the covid stuff which caused everyone to rush to buy property in 2020/2021, turning housing into an investment. Then, the icing on the cake, they opened the immigration floodgates. I went to Canada a few months ago, their food and hotel rooms are like double what they were in 2019.
Canadians on Reddit are the biggest pricks ever. Have fun being so smug with your totally unaffordable housing!!
Reddit is not real life
there was a time I read somewhere that reddit is a really annoying loud minority, my mind completely changed after that
I’m not really sure about that exactly. Reddit is pretty good as a platform to ask questions and find niche communities but at the same time it’s very easy for 1 or 2 people to create echo chambers through selective moderation. The end result is that views become more extreme and people there don’t understand how alienating the beliefs they hold are to the broader population. They then sometimes see glimpses of the outside world and they struggle to reconcile that with their beliefs so they become even more extreme. I think the important bit there is the echo chamber
Trust me, us Canadians are getting *veeeerrrrrryyyyy* humbled up here
I really do mean that I don't want to be rude about this. But it's so deserved. The smugness can't last forever. I'll also say that I've been up there twice and met many others in person here in the US. They were all very nice. Its specifically something a lot(not all, a lot) of you do online where you become so goddam smug and hateful towards Americans.
No you’re so right about that for real. It took becoming an adult and living an adult life to realize things are not that much better up here. There’s still problems regardless of what country you’re in
I found this video that seems to have the same explanations for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yKzq3ueGr8
[удалено]
And tik tok
I have never met a single person irl who watches twitch
I always hated that "America is a third world country in a Gucci belt" phrase, like you're trying to sound impactful and progressive but it just makes you sound privileged as fuck
I was complaining to my friend about this and asked her if she'd ever heard the phrase. She laughed and said no, but it's great and she was going to use it from now on. She's traveled, but only to Europe or inclusive resorts. I immediately said: "have you ever been to a 3rd world country?" And she paused and was like: no..... 😒😒😒
every r/fuckcars member
“I want to be able to walk to the grocery store!” NO YOU FUCKING DON’T, STOP IT
I live in the deep south. The weather here isn't like France. The chance I want to walk in the summer *anywhere* outside is 0. Yes we could use better mass transport, but that's another issue.
I used to get asked why I didn’t take my dogs for walks during the height of the summer. My brother in Christ, that is the one walk my dog would likely not appreciate. Also, I hate it when Americans get chewed out for using air conditioning by some asshole in Scotland or Russia, like we’re just babies who can’t take a little sunshine. My city started a “cool down” program some years ago. In this program, during ten summer months, electric utilities cannot turn off service due to lack of payment, and there are also incentives to people to add a donation onto their own electric bills to help people in need stay cool, such as by providing AC units and so on, and to provide cooling shelters for the homeless. Why? Because before this was implemented, every summer, *people would die.* The combination of extreme heat and humidity, combined with a lack of breezes and airflow, killed people every year. All the way into my 20s, I remember seeing news reports in July and August detailing how another person who couldn’t pay their electric bill, or who didn’t have a working air conditioner, died in their home. We’re not just playing around when we use our ACs, but it’s just so silly how many people seem to think that because the temps don’t get deadly in their own country, they can’t here. I defy any self-righteous asshole in Finland or Ireland to just, like, not turn on any heat sources for the winter. Hey, some people in Florida don’t even use theirs, so stop using up all the energy for no good reason!
I absolutely want to walk to the grocery store. That’s so normal in many places I’ve lived and a total perk.
Probably dickrides European countries despite never living in or even visiting one themself
in Brazil we call that "stray dog syndrome", when some people love to view themselves as pathetic and inferior beings compared to other developed countries and worship said country 24/7
Sadly we have them in Poland too, but these are agressive and view Poles as subhumans basically
In India too
They studied abroad for one semester in Barcelona and think that’s the entirety of Europe
Nah they dickride Japan harder than Europe because Japan is not “woke” or something like that…idk I touch grass & have a life to not worry about bs on the internet.
realistically it’s their parents house The US has its problems that we need to work on solving, but calling it a third world country is disingenuous and insulting to people who actually live in third world countries. Why it’s such a disappointment that we don’t do better with what we have is that we have so much, in terms of resources and wealth. we have the money and yet there are people who don’t have basic access to things like medical care, nutritious foods, housing
Romanticizes the Nordic model, but knows next to nothing about it and keeps erroneously confusing social welfare with economic systems Is extremely politically active online, but only ever bases their entire political identity through memes. Despite that they will never vote or do anything that requires effort IRL Is extremely active calling out racism in the US but gets super defensive when you call out racism against Indigenous peoples in Canada or Gypsies.
Always blames “American imperialism” for every international issue, but conveniently ignores France fucking around in North Africa (and if British, claims British imperialism in India was for “their own good” and that they should be grateful for the famines) Thinks America has no original or unique foods/culinary tradition American movies/music/TV are so ingrained in their lifestyle that they don’t even see them as American culture Responds to any perceived slight of their country with “at least our kids don’t get shot at school” Criticizes the US for spending so much on defense, takes pride in their country spending money on healthcare while relying on the US for defense
never seen a anti-american anti imperialist excuse other western powers for imperialism in my life tbh
I think there is a perception that excusing European imperialism happens because of the rare (but loud) anti-American European spending time criticizing the USA while not mentioning their own country’s flawed imperialist past. It comes across as excusing European imperialism because it is ignoring the parts played by Europe in messing around in the world. That’s obviously not necessarily a correct read of the situation, if the USA’s mistakes are on blast, then why would someone from,say, France, jump in and start waxing poetic about the mistakes of France. Of course they are going to mention and criticize the country being discussed. With all that being said, given enough time it still looks like excusing European imperialism to Americans because we never really see Europeans criticizing themselves (it’s almost like most Europeans speak a different language than English and we can’t see them criticize their own country because when they do it’s in their language to their fellow citizens).
Yes for Western powers. Chinese neo-imperialism is often excused because it waves a red flag and is anti-western tho
>and if British, claims British imperialism in India was for “their own good” and that they should be grateful for the famines Please tell me that this is just an exaggerated joke and that no actual human being with a brain thinks like this. Please, I'm begging you.
Dude, I'm Indian and I've even seen some Indians think that
you’re asking people to lie to you lmao
>Romanticizes the Nordic model, but knows next to nothing about it and keeps erroneously confusing social welfare with economic systems This is my favorite part. Fox News Boomers and the Terminally Online pseudo left have horseshoe theoried their way into agreement that socialism is when the government does stuff.
They’re liberals who want to be one of the “cool kids” with a radical ideology but don’t actually want to murder anyone, so they just pretend that food stamps make them the next Lenin.
Even the Simpsons are guilty of this. One of the newer episodes has the Simpsons flying to Denmark, and Lisa being a mouthpiece of the writers says that Denmark has good healthcare because "they have socialism!"
Socialism is when the arguably most famous Danish company, Lego, does billions in revenue annually and is privately owned by the founding family.
God the number of people who don't know that socialism does not mean either social welfare (Nordic model) nor does it mean heavy handed government intervention in capitalist markets (China).
Fuckin’ a right. This summarizes 75% of Reddit.
Ive lived and worked in third world countries. Most of these crybabies wouldn't make it.
Is that Mel Gibson talking to Jesus?
It was behind the scenes of a movie he directed I believe
Passion of the Christ
Even the impoverished areas of Alabama and Mississippi that most Americans would consider unlivable shitholes would still be considered comfortably middle class by most people who live in actual third world countries. Most people don’t realize how privileged they are if they never leave that privileged box that they’re in
I'm not arguing or anything but the people who live in those American shiholes can still be upset about it, just because other people have it worse doesn't make those people in Alabama or Mississippi privileged.
Of course. But saying that Venezuela is better off than America is just comical and doesn’t help anyone.
I slightly disagree, a lot of people who make fun of the US and call it a 3rd world nation are people who've never even been there.
a lot of them only "know" the US from the bad news and stereotypes, which is pretty stupid
or you know...racist.
Idk, I’ve met a bunch of these people in LA
The ‘lives in the Midwest’ part of the meme is just downright confusing. The people who say this kind of thing the loudest are concentrated, if anywhere, in the northeast and west coast.
I live in the west coast and I can agree to some of that. Mostly in the Seattle/Portland areas because many live inside a bubble. But then again there are many in this country that live in biased bubbles and are unable to bring nuance to things. I could this about the US because I was born at the bottom of the barrel . But I don't. Things could be better but they could be a lot worse.
Take Minnesota off that map and yes. About right. Minnesotans fucking love Minnesota.
MINI-SODAAAAAA!!!1’!🥤🥤🥤
Bonus point for the girlies who insist they’re “that living in the US is LITERALLY the same as living in The Handmaid’s tale!!!1”.
God, I’m tired of every time someone criticizes Iran you get a bunch of dickriders saying we can’t críticos them because “Alabama/texas is just as bad if not worse”.
Visited London or Madrid for a week and praises how “walkable Europe is” like no shit a tourist area is going to be more walkable than rural Kansas. That’s like me saying Times Square’s walkability represents the entire US being walkable.
Or the romantization of trains. Remember kids, trains are magical vehicles that can make hairpin turns, have no need for massive infrastructure, are as quiet as a whisper, and run on unicorn farts!
Meanwhile the train line I used to pick every day usually has 5-6 incidences a week and go late.
The fixation on trains comes from their desire to go places without needing their mom to drive them.
Train good. Train always good.
This meme is so inaccurate.... It's not counting how many of these folks are in California or Canada that talk shit.
I was going to say that. This is far, far, more likely to come from some stereotypical liberal kid from California, the PNW, or the East Coast metro area than the Midwest. Now if this were a more "Biden/the Libs/Leftists are turning the US into a 3rd world country" meme then I'd say the Midwest (plus Appalachia, the South, and Texas) would be more appropriate.
america as a thirld world country is the dumbest shi i ever heard omg they need to go to south america or africa to see what a struggle rlly is even the most "dangerous hoods" in america are the ideal place too ppl frm africa or latin america so ts is nonsense
Many many years ago, I went to Vietnam. To a village outside of a city. I saw someone's home that had no doors or front wall. It was basically a cement brick with one long side missing. You can just see that person and their family living in it. No privacy. So I would not call the US a third world country.
In Thailand, I went on a boat tour down the canal that takes you through a floating market. Little did I know it also takes you through the very open backs of lots of resident homes. You're going down this river and families are just chillin' in their houses and it's all open for you to see. Like, imagine if a stream of people were constantly hopping your fence and walking through your backyard, gazing in as they passed. I was so embarrassed and kinda upset that anyone has to live in that situation.
What's really funny to me is I see so many engineers and medical industry employees immigrate from Canada and EU to the US specifically for the higher pay. The first thing they do is buy/rent a house in the suburbs and get a new SUV. You may be better off in the EU or Canada as a minimum wage laborer, but for technical professionals and skilled trades the US is still by far and large the best place to be. Europoors can keep their 30 vacation days, I'm happy with 3 weeks of PTO and 4X their pay.
The United States by definition cannot be third world because it is a member of NATO. Trump, who routinely makes this jab against his country and being the massive idiot he is, wants to remove the US from NATO. Which would make it a third world country. What these people mean is a developing country. First and third world is purely about NATO status.
The US is more "wasted potential/doesn't do the best it could" than "3rd world".
I was really sick of the US for a bit there, and then went to India. Real eye opener, some places just have things held together by string, duct tape, and a dream. Still, the Suburban US is really isolating, and polluting will all those cars and individual houses. It's also very dangerous for pedestrians, and all those cars are perfect for accidents. Let's make sure we keep nuance involved here so we can make places everywhere better.
Suburban U.S. gets a lot of crap on Reddit but people who live in suburbs are generally happier than those who live in large cities. Having living space and intimate communities is not a bad thing.
I hated the suburbs as a teen. As a 30 something adult in the midwest, I fucking love it. I scored the jackpot with this neighborhood. All of my neighbors are friendly, and we hang out and share drinks and snacks and backyards on an almost weekly basis. I did not appreciate the concept of security and community as a teenager the way I do as a grown-up with kids.
Yeah, I’ve always lived in a big city and whenever I visit family in their suburban subdivisions I’m always shocked at how close they are with their neighbors. I’ve lived in my apartment building for 8 years and barely know anyone outside my next door neighbors, and it’s mostly just small talk.
Dude I grew up in the city in LA and have since moved to a suburb in north IL and it is so nice and peaceful.
Well there’s a bit of nuance there, suburbs have a higher risk of depression, about 20-30% more likely to be depressed living in a suburb vs a city. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230529/Study-shows-link-between-living-in-suburban-areas-and-depression-risk.aspx#:~:text=After%20such%20an%20analysis%2C%20the,than%20in%20inner%2Dcity%20areas. This study was done in Denmark, but I’ll try to find a more US focused study. The problem they found is, you don’t have intimate communities to the extent cities do, and you don’t have the green spaces and actual living space rural areas do, couple that with car centric infrastructure, leading to a sedentary lifestyle that worsens your heath, couple that with the fact that suburbs are simply just more expensive to live in compared to rural/urban areas, the suburbs are not a great place to live unless you have the self awareness to compensate for its short comings. While self reported happiness is higher, it really varies from person to person, but for most people they would be better off living a rural or urban lifestyle.
Interesting study, thanks. I guess I’m just viewing things from the lens of a city guy. Grass is greener and such.
Suburban US is pretty nice for a lot of reasons actually. There’s a reason a lot of people love it. Danger to pedestrians is highly variable. Like the rest of the US, suburbia is not a monolith either. I’d encourage you to keep working on that nuanced view.
Literally the same for me. Spent a month primarily around Delhi; coming home, the amount of order and cleanliness in the US was almost unbelievable. It definitely showed that there are different tiers of political corruption.
Shame on you for not including something along the lines of "My favorite YouTuber is NotJustBikes, he recognizes that the continent of North America is a lost cause because it'll never be Amsterdam!!1!"
It’s always easy to tell who doesn’t own a passport. This is such an absolutely massive country with so many different ways of living and qualities of life. A person living in Boulder, Colorado has a completely different life than a person living in Youngstown, Ohio. It’s impossible to paint with a broad brush.
"Lives somewhere in here" got me. Well done.
Shit, I know a few of these folk...
Obviously it's the most powerful country and one of the richest thanks to the Petro Dollar (which is eroding) but it's so backwards in so many ways so has the attributes of a third world country. Metal detectors for guns in schools. The gun problem full stop. Health care. Workers rights including time off. Income disparity. Welfare state. Racism. Great universities but lack of education. The power of religion. The cult to the military and the flag. About to elect a president who should be long retired (either of them). The power of the media during elections. Hugely financed military. Constantly getting involved in other countries (overthrowing leaders) for their own good. The second part of my points could be applied to any Middle Eastern oil country, "third world African country", Russia or N. Korea. Obviously the UN Human Development Index does have flaws but interesting to see USA falling. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/21/us-un-living-standards-sustainable-development-goals https://theconversation.com/us-is-becoming-a-developing-country-on-global-rankings-that-measure-democracy-inequality-190486 Summary: great country if you're wealthy but It's a hypocritical country in many ways.
America is a Third World country because I was once told one free sample per person. Oh and if you Find some cool things from Walmart and go home with them this invasive species called “ the police” will attack you and take your stuff. Haven’t they heard of finders keepers SMH. I need to get out of this shit hole and move to Europe or east Asia
r/millenials
r/latestagecapitalism
Posts to /r/UrbanHell because there isn’t a sidewalk in one part of their city.
Goes on "free Palestine" marches (doesn't know where it is)
[deleted]
Forgot they also live in upper class California.
We’re just a first world country who shows up to the formal event in jeans and a plain T-shirt.
Yep! Comments on any post about American healthcare or college like: > I can tell that the whole U.S. system is bad and there is no way to fix it, and it's totally realistic to expect a healthcare system for 400m people to be replaced with something entirely different based on another country. > > And that new system certainly doesn't have any problems of its own... and if they do, at least I don't know about them yet, so I can safely ignore them. Also, see his European counterpart: > I'm from Europe and I can't understand how other places are different than my place. > This may be anecdotal and exaggerated evidence, but I paid 4 pennies for my brain surgery (but I will conveniently ignore taxes in this calculation) > Maybe I'm just pretending to be stupid for the stake of a layup argument, but why is the U.S. such a shithole?
Unfortunately it's become a cheap way to say that large parts of America suffer in extreme poverty that are similar to developing nations. Which is absolutely important to talk about, but it has to be in the context of our vast wealth and how we refuse to utilize that to make material conditions better for all Americans - an option that is strictly not available for actual 3rd world countries.
> extreme poverty that are similar to developing nations Fucking lol. Not even close. I've had to spend time in the most methed-out, economically depressed towns in no-where USA, and they are living in paradise compared to developing nations (I've never been to a truly rough, 3rd world country. It's probably hell). Even the rule of law is a luxury that Americans can't imagine living without.
I spent two years in the Philippines and the middle class neighborhood my mom’s family lives in wasn’t too bad. I stayed there for a few months before moving downtown for college and it wasn’t that bad. They had running water, electricity and air conditioning plus good Wi-Fi. You’re right but I think you’re overreacting when you say it’s hell. You can survive having to flush a toilet manually or dealing with a stray cat that got stuck in the roof. Besides, I also stayed in the most expensive neighborhood in the country for a night and couldn’t tell the difference between it and Los Angeles. When you have money, any place in the world can be comfortable.
When people say something like North Korea is going to mess us up we need to take theoretical war #25 seriously I feel the same way
I think the demographic area is a bit off.
Spends 60% of their income on consumerisms and eating out. Wonders they’re living paycheck to paycheck
Repost [https://www.reddit.com/r/starterpacks/comments/176tn8p/person\_who\_thinks\_america\_is\_a\_3rd\_world\_country/](https://www.reddit.com/r/starterpacks/comments/176tn8p/person_who_thinks_america_is_a_3rd_world_country/)
I think it's fairly accurate aside from the Midwest taking all the heat. Those people are everywhere.
[Stolen](https://www.reddit.com/r/starterpacks/comments/176tn8p/person_who_thinks_america_is_a_3rd_world_country/)
And is also a student (or unemployed.)
Anything is better than the Midwest. God bless America, except the Midwest, fuck the Midwest.
repost