by Robert Weissberg, American Thinker:
Is the United States becoming a Third World nation? This question has long been on the edge of polite conversation, but former President Trump’s conviction in two New York courts has pushed the query to the forefront. The short answer is that while this slide was once unthinkable, it currently seems “unlikely.” Worse, all the trends point to its increasing likelihood.
What generally defines “Third World” includes pervasive poverty, dilapidated infrastructure, lack of sanitation, inadequate modern healthcare, rampant crime, ineffective education, and violent political instability often reflecting ethnic rivalries, not democratic elections. Law reflects the whim of the powerful; not following written precepts. Third world governments also have a penchant for crushing national debt and wild spending. Invariably, a very rich minority governs masses living in squalor.
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What separates First World nations like the U.S. from Third World nations like Nigeria is not vast natural resources. Third World Nigeria abounds in natural wealth while First World Japan has little.
The key difference is human capital, a collection of multiple traits, especially brain power and a strong work ethic, and absent these traits, a modern capitalist economy cannot exist. Expats in Third World countries routinely complain “nothing works,” and the corrupt government cannot fix or maintain anything.
Countless outward signs of a typical Third World nation have recently emerged in the United States. Most visible is the physical decline of major cities: filthy streets, unsanitary homeless encampments, open drug dealing and use, unpunished crime, burgeoning slums “off limits” to ordinary people, and a general incivility. Add a growing multi-generational pathologically ridden underclass permanently dependent on government assistance. A Baltimore resident would be shocked by the contrast with his hometown if he visited Helsinki or Athens.
Less visible is the decay of public education manifested in declining test scores, rampant school violence, and replacing traditional education with radical racial ideology prizing self-esteem over merit-based academics. Meanwhile, innumerable students at elite colleges, disproportionately majoring in academically “soft” fields, not engineering or science, demand “Death to America” while exhibiting profound ignorance of world affairs. Tellingly, in intellectually challenging fields, American must increasingly import its brain power from abroad.
These Third World style conditions persist despite spending billions and huge ameliorative bureaucracies, especially for curing our social pathologies. Ironically, these interventions only seem to exacerbate horrible conditions so the more we spend on homelessness, the greater the number of homeless. Such failure can only suggest a deficiency of brainpower. Remember, First World nations, by definition, can solve problems, whether running subways or cleaning streets.
A key harbinger of a slide towards Third Worldism is an appetite for unsustainable debt that inevitably brings economic collapse when lenders refuse to keep lending, and the United States seems headed in that direction. Our national debt is now $34 trillion, and the consensus is that it is out of control and a potential economic disaster. Yet, the cravings seem insatiable. The “free lunch” mentality has become part of our politics.
This pattern also occurs locally. In Chicago, for example, the total debt is now $40 billion or $43,000 per resident, and given the city’s anti-business policies and already elevated local tax rate, it is unclear if the debt can ever be repaid. Then add fiscal wastefulness like the city’s “Green New Deal for Schools.” Consequently, half the city’s budget now goes to servicing the debt and pensions so vital services like policing and fire protection are sacrificed, and matters will only deteriorate as residents and industry flee. Chicago may soon be a de-populated monument to Third World policies.
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