Quora Answer: Would You Rather be Wealthy in a Third World Country or Poor in America, Assuming You Cannot Move?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Would you rather be wealthy in a Third World country, or poor in the United States, assuming you cannot move?”

It is always better to be wealthy, no matter where you are.  As long as you have wealth, you have options and opportunities.  Poverty robs people of that.  One assumption in this question is that being in the US is somehow desirable.  That may have been true in the 1950s, and 1960s, when the US lead the world in standard of living.  Those times have long passed.  In terms of crime, healthcare, education, infrastructure development, and every other major indicator outside weapons development, the US is like a developing nation, not a developed one.

Secondly, the Third World refers to nations that did not officially side with the US and her allies, the First World; and the Soviet Union and her allies, the Second World.  This term is a legacy from the Cold War era.  Nowadays, many people mistakenly use the term to refer to developing countries, which is itself, a somewhat nebulous term.  There are “Third World” nations such as Singapore which have a standard of living that far outstrips the US.  There are “Third World” nations such as the UAE, Qatar and Oman that are wealthier than the US per capita GDP.

Even were we to consider the latter meaning of Third World, as a synonym to “developing countries”, to be poor in America is hardly better than being poor in the “Third World”, in places like Rwanda, China or eve Malaysia, where there are better opportunities for socioeconomic advancement, where gun violence is not at warzone levels, and where medical care is actually reasonably affordable.