Americans are an extremely proud people, there’s no doubt. This pride often translates into a mentality that the United States is the greatest nation on Earth. Now, I am not here to criticize your prideful sentiments—believe whatever you want—but I am an opinions writer, after all; I’m here to challenge that mentality. Perhaps even persuade you to allow your pride to consider some introspection regarding this country.
            The U.S. is called a “western nation,” a term often synonymous with the classification “first world.” Such countries are defined as “developed, capitalist, industrial countries, roughly, a bloc of countries aligned with the United States after World War II, with more or less common political and economic interests.” Economic similarities are at the root of the definition, but political similarities, involvement in global capitalism, and general agreement regarding civilization behaviors also contribute. The overarching theme of terms such as “first world,” or “western world,” is that these countries are in some way a superpower at regional or global levels. They have impressively large economies and world-class services readily available. They also tend to boast standards of living that measure wellbeing, happiness, and financial security. Social issues such as gender equality, maternity leave, and health benefits also tend to rate positively. Examples of such countries include the U.S., Australia, Great Britain, and France.
            To understand the developed end, it is crucial we define “first world” countries in opposition. The other end of the spectrum is the classification “third world.” These countries are often defined as “developing” and “low and lower-middle-income countries.” Nevertheless, the underlying concept here is that these countries are nonaligned with those that run global affairs; they are at their inception stage, and their influence is either stagnant or growing at a gradual pace. Examples of such countries include Madagascar, Afghanistan, Mozambique, and Ethiopia. These countries have a level of instability that denies their populace health benefits, wellbeing, and financial security.
            These were the technical definitions of first world and third world countries. For this article, however, I will define first world countries by my own series of requirements that they have to fulfill. These requirements are of course a personal interpretation of the word, but they are derived from the textbook definition we have discussed:
            1. Developed countries must have a strategy to combat gender inequality in the household, workplace, and society. Such strategies may involve societal norms regarding shared household duties and child care, equal pay for the same work, and a workforce where the gender division of labor is approximately 50/50.
            2. Developed countries must have addressed maternity and paternity leave, and provided adequate time to both genders as they enter fatherhood/motherhood. This requirement also necessitates the government ensure hospitals provide some sort of “care package,” or items to new mothers, lasting at least two weeks after a newborn’s birth.
            3. Developed countries must have addressed the issue of violence against women, minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community. Rates of violence in these countries must not be significant enough to emphasize a societal hatred toward marginalized groups. This requirement extends to the country’s immigration laws, that should be flexible and timely, and the population should not harbor nationalistic sentiments that causes friction toward immigrants, legal or otherwise.
            4. Developed countries must have adopted a plan to address climate change and adhere to the Paris Climate Accords. They must be focused on reducing carbon emissions by a certain year, and encourage societal purchases that are safer for the environment.
            5. Developed countries should have adopted environmentally friendly transportation, and addressed overpopulation of automobiles. Such efforts can be achieved through the building of transnational high-speed railroads and railcars that are electrically or solar-powered. The aim being to reduce carbon emissions.
            6. Developed countries must have adopted a sophisticated and safe application of universal healthcare at the national level. Such a requirement can be fulfilled through a universal healthcare scheme that subsidizes all medical costs for its citizens. Funding of the system may be achieved through a compulsory medical levy tax.
            7. Developed countries must have the legal choice of abortion equally available to every female citizen. They must have defined abortion as being a legal right on the grounds of bodily autonomy ensuring that every woman has an equal opportunity to receive one should she desire it—factors such as distance, race, cost, and socioeconomic status should not affect access.
            8. Developed countries must ensure that first-world services, capabilities, and technology are not denied to any citizen. Such services may include access to electricity, water, and transportation services for primary and secondary schools. These transportation services must not exceed a limit of two hours when regarding commutes.
            9. Developed countries must have a national standard for education, and must actively compete to ensure their students meet the global standard. They must include a medically accurate curriculum for sex education that is given to every student. Encouragement into the STEM fields regarding marginalized groups should also occur as a result of addressing gendered and racial expectations.
            Now that the requirements have been defined, let’s discuss them in terms of the U.S.
            The first requirement refers to the development of “a strategy to combat gender inequality in the household, workplace, and society.” The U.S. has historically been a sexist country. Many successful feminist movements have combated aspects of this unfortunate reality, yet today women are still fighting discrimination in the workplace, education, and in basic interactions. We have had 44 presidents, and not one of them has been female. In 2019, 127 women serve in the U.S. Congress—25 in the Senate, and 102 in the House. This breaks down to 23.7% women in the House, and 23.4% in the Senate. This disparity is mostly due to the fact that women were not allowed into Congress until the suffragist movement occurred, relatively late in U.S. history, and the nation clearly is still struggling with accurate representation of women in politics. Men cannot adequately represent women’s interests, especially in a nation where the anti-abortion sentiment is rampant. Women themselves have objective interests that are not partisan; different races of women have different interests, and they have to be addressed. I believe the root of the problem regarding sexism in the U.S. is due to the lack of representation in politics; if women (whether they be transgender, cis, or lesbian), are not represented 50/50, and we haven’t even had a female president, how can we, as a society, expect to mature into a mentality of gender equality? The U.S. has to create a strategy to ensure that gender equality can fully occur, and part of the strategy is addressing a lack of political representation.
            The lack of political representation and a decreased input in lawmaking also is why the U.S. does not meet the second requirement, regarding countries addressing “maternity and paternity leave, and provid[ing] adequate time to both genders as they enter father/motherhood.” The U.S. is, along with Lesotho, one of only two countries in the world that does not mandate paid maternity leave. Other countries allow all new parents to take more than a year of full-payed leave. If the U.S. wishes to fulfill this requirement, they should look to Finland, where expecting mothers start their leave seven weeks before their due date and the government covers 16 more weeks, fully paid, through a maternity grant. And it doesn’t even matter if the woman is employed or not; the maternity grant covers women who are self-employed or unemployed as well. Finland also offers eight weeks of paid paternity leave. And the benefits don’t stop there; after their child turns three, both parents can take a “partial care leave,” where they have the option of splitting time between home and work. The maternity grant could be implemented through the tax system, and it would benefit society as a whole.
            The U.S. is unable to fill the third requirement of developed countries, failing to “address the issue of violence against women, minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community.” In the U.S. 36% of women reported experiencing violence during their lifetime in 2014. This is 10% more than the other commonly recognized “first world” country on the cited list: Australia. The U.S. is also notorious for having cases of sexual violence go unreported by women, for fear of being shunned, demeaned, and not believed. The year 2018 was the deadliest year for LGBTQ+ in the U.S., according to the “Crisis of Hate” report released by the NCAVP. There was a statistic of one homicide a week where the victims were LGBTQ+. Anti-queer hatred is on the rise in the U.S., and it does not help matters that the current president, Donald Trump, removed LGBTQ+ rights from the White House agenda. The same president has sparked the growth of nationalist sentiment that shuns immigrants and outright hates illegal immigrants; his campaign platform was based on spurring distrust amongst Americans toward minorities, promising a wall to keep out one group he sees as detrimental to society. From 2016 to 2017, hate crimes increased by 17% in the United States, heated, racial rhetoric becoming more open after the election.
            When it comes to global environmental efforts, the U.S. also lags behind. Requirement four refers to the ability of developed countries “adopt[ing] a plan to address climate change and agree to adhere to the Paris Climate Accords.” Environmental policy took a dire turn for the U.S., when in 2017 Trump pulled out from the Paris Climate Accords. Since then, the issue of climate change has become increasingly partisan, with Democrats supporting environmental policy and Republicans shunning it. This is dire; we are heading toward a critical time regarding the Earth’s health, and U.S. inaction is putting all parties at risk. Climate change doesn’t care about your political identification.
            With regards to requirement five, where “developed countries should have adopted environmentally friendly transportation, and addressed possible overpopulation of automobiles,” the U.S has failed miserably. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions spiked in 2018, rising around 3.4% in a time when not reducing carbon emissions can have devastating effects on climate change. We are heading into environmental catastrophe. The automobile industry is huge in the U.S., and its devastating effects are all but ignored. The U.S. should focus on building a transnational high-speed railroad. Rail transport is much greener than car, and it would inevitably cause carbon emissions to fall. The U.S. should look to Japan for inspiration, where the *shinkansen*, (as it’s called in Japan), has become a symbol of efficiency, aiding the economy and the environment.
            When it comes to the populace, the U.S. should also look to Japan in fulfilling the next requirement, where “developed countries must have adopted a sophisticated and safe application of universal healthcare at the national level.” Here, the U.S. is especially failing. For a country that values individualistic choices, though, the easiest system of universal healthcare could be Japan’s, where the health care system “provides free screening processes for certain diseases, infectious disease control, and prenatal care. Under the health care system in Japan, the patient accepts responsibility for 30% of the medical costs, and the government pays the remaining 70%.” The U.S. also has fewer physicians, hospital beds, and psychiatric care beds than other economically advanced countries, ranking at the bottom. The U.S. is the only “first world” country not to have full health coverage of its population.
            When it comes to the U.S. populace, abortion is a tricky topic. Anti-abortion sentiment is rampant in the U.S., evidenced by the Colorado Springs shooting at a Planned Parenthood Center. Abortion has been declared a Human Right by the United Nations, yet the U.S. is embarrassingly anti-abortion, as in many states it is virtually impossible for a woman to attain such procedures. The U.S. has to work toward fulfilling the requirement of “having the legal choice of abortion equally available to every female citizen.” It would benefit the entire society. Historically, abortions have always been present, so making it legal would allow safe abortions to occur. The 1973 Supreme Court “Roe v. Wade” decision made it possible for women to get safe, legal abortions from well-trained doctors. After hearing the case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Roe by the rationale that Americans’ right to privacy included the right of a woman to decide whether to have a child, and her right to make that decision without state interference. Despite the violence that suggests American society should work on a shift in mentality toward abortion, states continue to ignore this by their legal actions. Today, many states known for being “pro-life” have managed to weave around the constitutional ruling. To address this issue, the U.S. has to combat the mentality that abortions are immoral, beginning with amendments to the legislation in each state.
            The U.S. has a long history of mistreating the indigenous, from breaking treaties to incarceration. At present, the living conditions on Native American reservations are that of the “third world,” proving that the next requirement, where “developed countries must ensure that first-world services, capabilities and technology are not denied to any citizen” is unfulfilled. Around “30% of Indian housing is overcrowded, and less than 50% of it is connected to a public sewer.” Despite the Indian Housing Authority’s (IHAs) recent efforts, there is still a dire need for houses on reservations, and a current waiting list for tribal homes. The White Rock chapter of the Navajo Nation was in desperate need of basic power lines in 2010. The Pueblo of Santa Clara in northern New Mexico had to fight local lawmakers for running water and a water supply. Water and power are a defining characteristic of “first world” countries, and this basic lack of access when it comes to Native Americans in the U.S. is shameful.
            The U.S. also trails behind other countries when it comes to education, leaving the requirement of “a national standard for education, and actively competing to ensure their students meet the global standard,” unfulfilled. One aspect the U.S. needs to work on is sex education. “Sex education in the United States is taught in two main forms: comprehensive sex education and abstinence-only. Abstinence-only approaches are unrealistic, and states with this approach to sex education often report a higher rate of teenage pregnancy. The U.S. must adopt a national standard for education, especially when it comes to sex education.
            When it comes to being a “first world,” country, the U.S. has much to work on. Mistreatment of indigenous, disregarding climate change, and continued use of sexist rhetoric leading to many societal issues are at the root of the problem. Until the U.S. decides to pause, evaluate, and understand the implications of their current policies, we will continue to live in the same reality, blanketed only by the false impression of our “first world” status.
Sources:
https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world_countries.htm
https://www.history.com/news/why-are-countries-classified-as-first-second-or-third-world
http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/women-elective-office-2019
https://qz.com/879092/the-us-doesnt-look-like-a-developed-country/
https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-with-best-parental-leave-2016-8
https://www.them.us/story/anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-are-on-the-rise

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-pulls-u-s-out-paris-climate-agreement-n767066
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-spiked-in-2018–and-it-couldnt-happen-at-a-worse-time/2019/01/07/68cff792-12d6-11e9-803c-4ef28312c8b9_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2656cad925ac
https://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/low-impact-living/what-are-most-earth-friendly-transportation-methods
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http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=naa_livingconditions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_education_in_the_United_States