

Third World America  - cwan
http://aidwatchers.com/2011/02/third-world-america/

======
jamn
It is sad to see some areas where people on average are doing significantly
worse than the richest parts of the United States.

However, I find the choice of the term 'Third World America' to be
particularly deceiving. Let's take Louisiana, for example, marked as amongst
the worst regions according to the infographic. Median earnings are 28,000 and
about 75% with at least high school education.

Now let's compare against Mexico's average. Mexico is not nearly as bad as
other third world countries. Average earnings are about 7,000 USD/year [1]
(and median earning is probably worse). Roughly have of Mexicans haven't
completed their junior high school education (6th to 9th). These are national
averages, though, which --unlike the infographic -- do not focus only on the
poorest areas. The poorest areas are, of course, much worse.

I'm not trying to say with this that you shouldn't complain if others have it
worse. I am just saying that this particular choice of wording is not
realistic and, in my mind, took away from the credibility of the rest of the
site .

[1]
[http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/12/07/index.php?section=econ...](http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/12/07/index.php?section=economia&article=028o1eco)
[2] <http://simposio.asu.edu/2004/docs/mesas/2/suarez.pdf>

~~~
wladimir
I don't get it either. Why the ongoing comparisons with countries that are
even worse off? Wouldn't it be better to look at countries in which there is
less poverty, and see what they do better? (For example: many North European
countries hardly have poverty as in "can't pay for food/housing" at all)

~~~
locopati
Because that angle has been tried repeatedly and is usually shrugged off by
conservatives as 'too European, too socialist'. So, this is an attempt to
point out that we're not in great shape and shame politicians into doing
better for the people.

~~~
notahacker
Conservatives will find it even easier to shrug off comparisons between the
indebted, undereducated and underemployed in the US and the extreme poverty of
the "Third World".

Whilst there is a significant amount of evidence to suggest that _relative_
poverty is actually more detrimental to people's happiness than absolute
poverty, comparisons like this which conflate the issues and don't provide any
stats to back their claims up are counterproductive.

I'm not saying extreme rhetoric doesn't work (see for instance effective
campaigns which characterise a lifestyle more than half the world would
consider well-off as a "living wage"), but I don't think it helps in this
instance.

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alphaoverlord
Without scales or legends, one cannot tell if the range is from "great to
good" or "good to bad".

I would be interested in seeing the same information normalized to other
countries or at least given some solid numbers.

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nhebb
Third World was a Cold War era term meaning countries not aligned with NATO or
the Soviet Block. I wonder how all those countries feel about the term being
used as a pejorative.

That aside, the biggest failing I see is that the average earnings don't seem
to be adjusted for the cost of living.

~~~
cema
No, those were "nonaligned". Third World used to describe what's left if you
remove the developed capitalist countries and the European socialist
countries.

~~~
nhebb
Scratching my head. What is the difference between not aligned and nonaligned
in this context?

~~~
lmz
"Nonaligned" is an actual name used by a group of countries:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-aligned_movement>

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rdl
Why is Nevada so particularly bad?

~~~
ktsmith
Some of it is that roughly 15% of the total population are in rural areas
where the primary jobs available are in mining, or agriculture. Illegal
immigrants make up a significant portion of the total population according to
the latest numbers released by ICE. The number one industry in Nevada is
tourism followed by mining. You don't need a highly skilled labor pool to fill
a significant percentage of those jobs. The education budget has historically
been dependent on revenues from the gaming (gambling) industry. You can guess
where Nevada falls on education spending, graduation rates etc. Nevada ranks
poorly in every social spending category so it's not just education that
suffers. Poverty is also a huge issue, over 50% of the students in Washoe
County live at or below the poverty line for example.

