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I try to be open minded, but it's hard for me not to think less of third world countries, considering their abundance of corruption, poor democracy, poverty and violence. Am I the only one to be a little ethnocentric?
It's probably a pretty normal attitude of the ignorant, but honestly, I think you have described the USA pretty well, "abundance of corruption, poor democracy, poverty and violence", instead.
I'm anchored in a third world country right now and I see no "abundance of corruption, poor democracy, poverty and violence" here. Nor the last dozen or so we've visited in the last year. They even have Micky D's, Domino's Pizzas and Kentucky Chickens. Hummmmm.
Oh, there's always exceptions. And the US certainly has its problems. However, third world countries tend to be 10x worse with things like corruption and poverty.
OK, then. I guess you are THE expert, having spent how much time living in 3rd world countries?
I don't understand why the poster needs to be shamed for his opinion or because perhaps he isn't "politically correct". The poster doesn't need to look at countries that are considered third world with compassion if they don't want to, the same way I don't need to look at a fat person and be shamed for calling them fat.
An uninformed and ignorant post is not an opinion, it is just that; an uninformed and ignorant post. He asked a question, and in at least my case, I am responding with informed facts, not anecdotal misinformation. For fuck's sake, I've spent most of my life in 3rd world countries and have seen much more corruption in the US than any of them. Our government pays to build "bridges to nowhere" and subsidizes everything from the hugely profitable farming and petroleum industries, to the very banks that caused a world wide depression that cost millions of Americans their homes and jobs. If you don't call that corruption, what would you call it? As for poverty, take a wander through the ghettos of most cities around this nation and get back to me.
Almost the whole infrastructure of the United States is crumbling around us. Many highway bridges are way past due for repair and are frankly, unsafe, most roads are in poor condition and utilities and sewage systems in America are stressed to a point that repeated failures are imminent. But congress votes themselves a raise every couple of years and get their pensions even if they are convicted of a felony while in office and jailed!
It is amazing (and sad) how many Americans see their country through rose colored glasses and feel superior to the rest of the world. Time to wake up, you young people. The information you get from the American Media is little more than government sponsored propaganda, certainly not the unbiased reporting that it is touted to be.
Quality of life indexes from the CIA World Factbook put the US squarely in the top 5% of world countries. Sure there is corruption, that's inevitable once people are involved, but third world countries don't appear anywhere near where the US is. Your post doesn't just imply third world countries are better to live in you basically compare third world countries as not even coming close to the US in terms of government, infrastructure, and overall quality of life, that's completely your own opinion, not factual at all. You did the exact same thing you berated the OP for doing.
Does watching the news or seeing the "donate to so-and-so commercials" count?
Of course you are talking about an unbiased news source like the BBC. Or do you get your news from CNN?
Aren't all commercials designed to get you to shell out your hard earned money, perhaps, with some exaggeration? Are you so naive as to believe, without question, EVERYTHING you see on TV, or the web?
I am very sorry to have to tell you this, but you have taken the bait, hook, line and sinker, if you are an American.
Not at all. I don't understand how you can judge things you've neer experienced, places you've never been. Especially if your knowledge of third world countries starts an ends with charity commercials.
The news and commercial examples obviously aren't the best. However, these statistics seem pretty reliable:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
https://data.undp.org/dataset/Table-1-Human-Development-Index-and-its-components/wxub-qc5k
http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking
http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results
Their smelly, dirty, no internet, some of them don't even have McDonalds.