By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Politics Discussion - Is the United States really a developed country?

konnichiwa on 13 July 2018
TheGamer_1995 said:

It’s the bad boy of the developed countries

In all seriousness though, I think it’s just that the American public is more vocal about their problems than any other developed country.
If other developed countries would also sensationalize their problems like the American public does, then the US wouldn’t look so bad in comparison to many people.
I for one don’t think that the US is as bad as the public makes it out to be.

Nah some stuff happens, an example I can give is how last year a man did not pay the rent for a year and the police tried to evict him in Belgium. The guy was furious and the police tried to calm him down but he passed away...Ofcourse small detail he was black so it turned into a 'Black lives matter rally' and police is racist stuff..

the USA tend to have some extreme horrible situations and people get away with.

Stuff like this would bring governments down in Europe:






Around the Network
TheBird on 13 July 2018

To start this off, search up the 2016 murder map of America, and also look at the 2016 election US Map.

The US is also the last country with true free speech, and therefore a lot of their issues are more public due to people saying stuff freely and without fair. The whole world can see (except most of Europe who are locked out from certain types of media). The US just dominates. Other country's don't have their issues publicized as easily since their media is 110% controlled and speech is limited. So when the UK and Sweden are having immigrants rape and stab people in the tens of thousands, barely anyone will know as they don't want that information out and they can control it.
When shit ton of people are getting stabbed and shot in the US by anyone, everyone knows because the information can't be easily controlled. Every country has its flaws, just the US has most of it public so people get this false perception that US are the screwed up people. It's just a really fucking big country eh.

Anyways, most of the screw ups in the US are a direct result of democratic policies and laws. Let those people be in charge for too long and everything falls apart.



Errorist76 on 13 July 2018

The US are overdeveloped and extremely underdeveloped at the same time. The government does everything to keep the people uneducated, are overly capitalistic and incredibly backwards at the same time and it’s getting worse and worse under Trump.



The_Liquid_Laser on 13 July 2018

49 out of 50 states are definitely developed. As for Michigan, it isn't doing so well right now. If you live in Canada next to Michigan, then I can see why you'd think the whole of US is in terrible shape. I am still trying to figure out if it's worse to live in Detroit or in Flint.



curl-6 bet me that PS5 + X|S sales would reach 56m before year end 2023 and he was right.
My Bet With curl-6

My Threads:
Master Thread, Game of the Year/Decade
Switch Will Be #1 All Time
Zelda Will Outsell Mario (Achieved)
How Much Will MH Rise sell?
My Bet With Metallox

AsGryffynn on 13 July 2018

The reason it looks that way is because of size. A country as big as the US means structural problems are a lot bigger and harder to fix. It's the reason the US is much wealthier than Russia but technologically, seems to be behind (Russia has multiple high speed rail lines, averages faster and cheaper internet speeds and prices and despite looking like the opposite, is more plastic/NFC friendly, despite having a considerably lower GDP per capita)...
Oh... There's one more thing to it as well...



Around the Network
RenCutypoison on 13 July 2018

It will seem unrelated at first but in EU it is usually considered that you can enter the EU if you are approximatively geographically attached to the rest of the Union and have most requirements to be considered a developped country (altough it's sometimes realy questionnable).

Given the enormous amount of underlying issues in US that are part of its foundations (as exposed in the OP), so appart from the GDP US in this highly hypothetical situation might be refused, thus considered "not a fully developped country".

I'd like to add that equality in the eyes of justice should be a requirement for developped country. Given the very well known racial bias in the US justice system (Though France is also concerned for example) and that one of the most important court in the US (immigration court) does not give a right to free counseling,  it's two more reasons for the US status as a developped country to be questionned.



irstupid on 13 July 2018
HomokHarcos said:

 

When the developed nations of the world are mentioned, a few always come up. Canada, United States, almost all of Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. However, the US being considered a developed country puzzles me. Looking at the GINI Index, it has massive inequality in terms of wealth. All of the other developed nations are in the green while the United States is red.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality

Mississippi is pretty poor, and it's hard to think of it being a rich nation when you are in some of the inner cities or rural areas in the South.

Also, the crime rate and violence is much higher than the rest of the developed world. Looking at the intentional homicide rate also brings a similar view.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

Detroit can feel like many South American or South African cities when it comes to violence. Nowhere in Canada would a place ever be that dangerous to visit.

 

Compared that also with no public health care. In many other developed countries you are not treated as something to be exploited for money at the hospital. In the United States it seems that money is the priority in hospitals. Cuba literally has a higher-life expectancy than  the United States. Pretty much all of the other developed countries do.

 

Also the government is much more corrupt than the other developed countries. The USA has become a two-party dominated country with the Democrats and Republicans where donors actually determine the nation's policy. So many times politicians are caught doing crooked things such as Rick Snyder knowing that the Flint water was unsafe yet he continued to let the water be used. He was never punished for it.

 

The United States notably Is also much more religious than the other developed countries. The government tries to prevent gay marriage and abortions from becoming acceptable. For supposedly being a secular nation the government seems to base a lot of their rulings off of religious views.

Then there’s the education system. The US is not very educated compared to many other Western nations. The high prices and prestigious universities certainly are great for the country, but many local schools are so poorly funded that they can’t even provide up-to-date books. This makes the country feel more like China than the Netherlands or Sweden. Of course this also extends to school violence. In no other country in the whole world are mass shootings in the school a problem like they are in the United States. Quite unfathomably, the general public has normalized school shootings to the point when one does happen it gets forgotten about very quickly.

 

I lived in the United States for four years and love it with a spot in my heart. But all the problems such as poor education, government corruption, violence, income inequality make it just under being a developed nation. It is not comparable to Australia, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom, Japan and my current country Canada in terms of living.

 

Just so you know, the rural areas that are "Pretty Poor" have a better standard of living than places like San Francisco that has super rich people.

The wage gap is not something one can really look at when looking at the US as a whole. A person can be renting a closet for 2,000 a month in San Francisco and barely survive even though they may 100k a year. Meanwhile someone making 30k a year in Alabama can have a 3 story house with kids and live comfortably. 



Rab on 13 July 2018

Parts of it



irstupid on 13 July 2018
Ka-pi96 said:
AsGryffynn said:
The reason it looks that way is because of size. A country as big as the US means structural problems are a lot bigger and harder to fix. It's the reason the US is much wealthier than Russia but technologically, seems to be behind (Russia has multiple high speed rail lines, averages faster and cheaper internet speeds and prices and despite looking like the opposite, is more plastic/NFC friendly, despite having a considerably lower GDP per capita)...
Oh... There's one more thing to it as well...

Not the best example since Russia is quite a bit larger than the US

Russia is not that much bigger than the US. The way maps look is why it looks so much bigger.

It would be more apt to take into account the land that is actually used. There are huge parts of Russia that no one lives period.

Like say Russia is twice the size of the US, the US is over twice the population of Russia.



jason1637 on 13 July 2018

"The U.S. still fares very well on that score. On a global scale, the vast majority of Americans are either upper-middle income or high income. And many Americans who are classified as “poor” by the U.S. government would be middle income globally, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis.

"
Yes it's a developed country.