Is Mexico considered to be third world?

[Superman]

Is it? I know there are some very nice tourist resorts, but is it considered to be a third world country?

[Joe]

Yes, Mexico is a third-world country per the generally accepted definition.

[SyntaxVorlon]

Third world is an outdated term. Semi-developed, due to its substantial middle and upper class, but low standard of living is a better descriptor. As Third world implies that there is a second world and at the moment, there really isn't anything like that. It usually denotes a country that is in danger, due to its low economic status, of falling into civil war or to communism.

[Master of Ossus]

Mexico's kind of on the borderline since some areas of Mexico are fairly well developed, but on the whole it's a third world country.

[Joe]

No, there is a second world - it consists of all the former Soviet-bloc countries and China, primarily. Nobody uses the term much, though.

Of course, the term is somewhat misleading nowadays, since many third world countries are developing and actually better off than a number of second world countries.

[SyntaxVorlon]

No, there is a second world - it consists of all the former Soviet-bloc countries and China, primarily. Nobody uses the term much, though.

Of course, the term is somewhat misleading nowadays, since many third world countries are developing and actually better off than a number of second world countries.

That's why it's outdated, it doesn't give a very good desciption of the countries socio-economic status. Undeveloped -> Developing -> Semi-developed -> Developed -> US is a better way of describing the current economic hierarchy.

[kheegster]

No, there is a second world - it consists of all the former Soviet-bloc countries and China, primarily. Nobody uses the term much, though.

Of course, the term is somewhat misleading nowadays, since many third world countries are developing and actually better off than a number of second world countries.

That's why it's outdated, it doesn't give a very good desciption of the countries socio-economic status. Undeveloped -> Developing -> Semi-developed -> Developed -> US is a better way of describing the current economic hierarchy.

Economy isn't the only measure of development. By that criterion, Switzerland is more developed than the US, since its per-capita GDP is higher. If you want to use GNP, then China is more developed than France, which is also ridiculous.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

I recall that there's another system of organising countries relating to circles or spheres or somesuch, that doesn't relate at all to the socialist/capitalist structure of the Nth World system...

[Joe]

Economy isn't the only measure of development. By that criterion, Switzerland is more developed than the US, since its per-capita GDP is higher. If you want to use GNP, then China is more developed than France, which is also ridiculous.

Umm, economic development generally is the best measure of how developed a country is. If not, then what else? That doesn't mean you have to accept certain statistics at face value, it just means you have to view different factors in a broader context.

[Sea Skimmer]

No, there is a second world - it consists of all the former Soviet-bloc countries and China, primarily. Nobody uses the term much, though.

Of course, the term is somewhat misleading nowadays, since many third world countries are developing and actually better off than a number of second world countries.

And many third world countries as we now call them where western allied when the term first being used (which was the military and political outlook of the country in the cold war) and by that denfition would be first world.

[Zaia]

N&P

[RedImperator]

Third World is outdated because it's the terminology of a geopolitical system that no longer exists. The third world originally referred to the non-aligned countries during the Cold War, most of which were newly emerging independent states in Asia and Africa, as well as the countries of the Americas south of the Rio Grande. Third World became synonymous with "undeveloped" because of the nature of most of the countries in it.

Today, it's really a uselessly broad term. Countries like Mexico, Brazil, and India might be Third World, but so are nations like Somalia, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Obviously--OBVIOUSLY--there is an enormous difference between the first group and the second. You might say the nations in the second group, and those like them, are in a Fourth World, nations which are so hopelessly poor and dysfunctional they will ALWAYS be failed states, as opposed to the first group, which have serious problems but could potentially overcome them, and at any rate aren't as bad off as the others.

[Master of Ossus]

Today, it's really a uselessly broad term. Countries like Mexico, Brazil, and India might be Third World, but so are nations like Somalia, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Obviously--OBVIOUSLY--there is an enormous difference between the first group and the second. You might say the nations in the second group, and those like them, are in a Fourth World, nations which are so hopelessly poor and dysfunctional they will ALWAYS be failed states, as opposed to the first group, which have serious problems but could potentially overcome them, and at any rate aren't as bad off as the others.

"Our efforts have moved Estonia from a fifth-world country to a four-and-a-half world country."

-Pointy Haired Boss

[Ma Deuce]

"Our efforts have moved Estonia from a fifth-world country to a four-and-a-half world country."

-Pointy Haired Boss

It was Elbonia, actually...

[Master of Ossus]

"Our efforts have moved Estonia from a fifth-world country to a four-and-a-half world country."

-Pointy Haired Boss

It was Elbonia, actually...

Oh, yeah.

Viva, la Elbonia!

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

First World, Second World, and Third World were all POLITICAL terms, not economic ones. (and very Eurocentric as well!)

The first world was the democratic "free world," that included all the shithole tin pot dictator states as well as the democracies.
The second world was the Solviet block, and satelite nations.
The third world was everybody else, who was "up for grabs,' like the "swing voters" who must be played to.
The third world would play the first two off each other, and the first two would woo or intimidate for local advantages in the strategic cause.

Thus Cuba wasn't ever a third world country, (Solviet block nation) despite erronious perceptions. China was the wild card, ignored when the paradigm was first made, and later shoehorned into a definition it did not meet.

This is one of those cases where the word has morphed by common use, and assosiation of properties.
Third world nation were mostly under develouped, and that is what the public saw. This then became the new defiition.


Very much like Jumbo, Shrimp, and a few others.
Jumbo was an elephant in the circus about the turn of the century. (Jumbo is Swahili for "biggest.") Jumbo was so large that his name became a word for large in english.
Shrimp. A small animal, with the notable property of being small. It is a SPECIES, not a size!

Jumbo shrimp is NOT an oxymoron, any more than saying, "That car is very large for a subcompact."

But I digress.

With the fall of the Solviet Union, there is in fact, NO SUCK THING as the first, second, or third world. There is NO Solviet block, and thus the "USA and Allies, Solviet Union and allies, and unaligned" is meaningless.
Factor in the fall of communism in China, (We were Chinese long before we were communist!) rise of ME powers, the creation of the EU, ect...
Notice how the second world seemes to never mentioned! Well, there isn't one! Without 2, 1 and 3 are meaningless coordinates.(POLITICALY!)

1st, 2nd, and 3rd world is as accurate as the "Left-Right" political spectrum. It is too limited to realisticly describe the scope of thought, yet keeps being used for lack of a better scale to measure political affilitions. (Like how the Nazis and the hardcore Communists are on opposite ends, yet act the same)
As if a single axis could graph the complexities of polotics!

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

Danm, Red beat me to it!

[PrinceofLowLight]

There's another way of classifying, Powers rather than World, which I don't think is much used anymore. It goes from Superpower, Great Power, Power of The First, Second and Third ranks. It was based on how much influence it had on other nations, militarily, economically and socially. That's interesting.