Only 33 developed countries exist?
According to Wikipedia it’s 40:
USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and big parts of Europe.
USA:
- Has most powerful military in the world
Also:
- Can’t prevent kids from getting mass murdered in school, and making it worse, it happens every week
😓
There was also just one in Wisconsin a day or two ago…
https://apnews.com/live/madison-wisconsin-school-shooting-updates
Imagine if besides the right to bear arms, there were also hospitals for the bears.
The US is barely a developed nation. The Economist reclassified the US as a flawed democracy in 2022. There were also proposals by members of the UNCTAD to reclassify the US as a developing nation in 2023, a classification formerly known as third world. The proposals were unsupported by the World Bank.
I don’t remember where I heard this, but someone a while back called America a “third-world country but with Walmarts.” And while the “third-world” moniker is a bit dated and problematic, I think the rest fits pretty well.
The US is like the Two-Face or Jekyll/Hyde of developed nations. It’s more like a developing nation with islands of modernity AND Walmarts.
We have all this money, military, cultural influence, universities, businesses, and so many other by-the-numbers indicators of a modern society. But we don’t have the quality of life, and we just elected Donald Trump in goddamn 2024. Decisively so. Fuck.
That was before Trump won. I think the category moved from developing to post-apocalyptic.
Don’t worry: our greedy politicians are trying to erode it in all 32 other countries too. They want to be rich like HMO CEOs but not live in America, and don’t get the paradox.