Is America Becoming A Third World Country?

That is the question that Foreign Policy magazine looks at due to a number of left wing publications are claiming it.  For people that have been to third world countries we know this claim is idiotic, but if there is an area that America is reaching third world status it would be in the American media.  The sensationalism and intentionally divisive media environment in the US which just asking this question is an example of is something that belongs in a third world country:

It’s a bombastic question, and usually it’s the domain of the nativist right or the anchorless left. Patrick Buchanan, for example, framed the question in terms of illegal immigration from Latin America:

Thousands of U.S. troops safeguard the border of South Korea. U.S. warships patrol the South China Sea to stand witness to the territorial claims of Asian allies against China. U.S. troops move in and out of the Baltic States to signal our willingness to defend the frontiers of these tiny NATO allies. Yet nothing that happens on these borders imperils America so much as what is happening on our own bleeding border with Mexico. Over three decades, that border has been a causeway into the USA for millions of illegal immigrants who are changing the face of America — to the delight of those who think the country we grew up in was ugly.

And a number of left-of-center publications — Rolling Stone and The Nation — for example, have argued that in terms of social services, infrastructure, and government services, the United States is slipping into third world territory.  [Foreign Policy]

You can read more at the link.