Ireland still a 1st world country??

bobo26b

Just wondering with all the sh*te that has gone on in Ireland over the last few years, can we still call ourselves a 1st world country. Is it possible that we may have slid into being some sort of 2nd tier 1st world country or 2nd world country.

Lads were talking about this in the pub the other night most thought we were still a 1st world country, I'm not sure I think we could have slipped a bit into some form of 2nd tier group.

So what do ye think??

davet82

Go to Ethopia for a week and come back and tell us what YOU think :rolleyes:

Where To

We're still in the Top Ten.

bobo26b

davet82 wrote: »

Go to Ethopia for a week and come back and tell us what YOU think :rolleyes:

Not saying we are a 3rd world country buddy, read my post again

curlzy

Depends on the issue really. Social supports: 1st world country, Abortions law: > 3rd world country.

Felexicon

The fact that you discussed this in a pub answers this question.

davet82

bobo26b wrote: »

Not saying we are a 3rd world country buddy, read my post again

Go to Eastren Europe then, you'll find the same answer applies :rolleyes:

im invisible

i dont know what a tracker mortgage 2nd world country is

Fattes

We were never a 1st world country! By the standard definition accepted globally we were actually a 3rd world country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World

Kylo Ren

Absolutely. Having to walk about 10 feet to the fridge to get bottled water is starting to take its toll.

Where is our Concern eh?

I am pie

Only people who have never left a fully developed country ask questions like this. Travel a bit, see if you can't work out why it is a daft question.

Duggy747

Isn't the term of a 2nd world country one that belonged to countries that were under the Soviets back in the day?

In that case, Heil Lenin comrade bonjour..........eh........mucho grande?

bobo26b

I am pie wrote: »

Only people who have never left a fully developed country ask questions like this. Travel a bit, see if you can't work out why it is a daft question.

would you say we are in the same group as some of the 1st world countries such as Sweden, Denmark or even Australia??

Andy-Pandy

Some people on boards have no idea how lucky they are to live in this country.

Andy-Pandy

bobo26b wrote: »

would you say we are in the same group as some of the 1st world countries such as Sweden, Denmark or even Australia??

Yes

Fattes

In relation to all of the above as people perceive it rather than what it is Ireland was never a first world country.

We were always even at the height of the boom a second world nation. Poor infrastructure public services and facilities, we were always a step behind.

ckeego

Nothing other than a first class Banana Republic.

bobo26b

Andy-Pandy wrote: »

Yes

I would actually argue that are level of infrastructure, government social issues and some problems in relation to paramilitaries would not place us at the highest levels of the 1st world grouping, not to mention are current economic mess.

ckeego

And to quantify my comment above, where in the world would you have a country where we are bailing out the banks and they make the gutter move of raising credit card rates a week before Christmas...

bb1234567

bobo26b wrote: »

Just wondering with all the sh*te that has gone on in Ireland over the last few years, can we still call ourselves a 1st world country. Is it possible that we may have slid into being some sort of 2nd tier 1st world country or 2nd world country.

Lads were talking about this in the pub the other night most thought we were still a 1st world country, I'm not sure I think we could have slipped a bit into some form of 2nd tier group.

So what do ye think??

If Ireland can no longer be considered a 1st world country then that means theres about ten 1st world countries in the whole world. Ireland is still a better country to live in than the likes of USA, UK, Spain,Portugal, Greece etc and theyre all first world countries. Only the likes of Canada, Asutralia, Germany and the Scandinavian contries would have a higher quality of life than Ireland .

Celly Smunt

ckeego wrote: »

And to quantify my comment above, where in the world would you have a country where we are bailing out the banks and they make the gutter move of raising credit card rates a week before Christmas...

oh no,not a government doing what's best for the country? :rolleyes:

you got the credit card,deal with it.

JamieKCCO

Would I be wrong in saying we have one of the highest standards of living in the world?

SEPT 23 1989

We were 3rd world because we were neutral in the Cold War

cristoir

The terms first world, second world and third world are not linked to economic performance. The terms actually correlated to an outdated model of the geopolitical world. First world refers to democratic-industrial countries within the American/Capitalist influence sphere. Second World refers to any countries in the Soviet/Communist sphere of influence (hence why that one isn't mentioned any more). Third World was to refer to the "unaligned" which basically was everyone else.

The reason the whole first world, third world terms became to be mistaken for economic performance is simple. The economic performance of countries within the US sphere of influence was and is much stronger then the "unaligned" nations which consists of much of Africa and Asia.

Celly Smunt

JamieKCCO wrote: »

Would I be wrong in saying we have one of the highest standards of living in the world?

we're mostly middle field of the best.

bb1234567

Fattes wrote: »

In relation to all of the above as people perceive it rather than what it is Ireland was never a first world country.

We were always even at the height of the boom a second world nation. Poor infrastructure public services and facilities, we were always a step behind.

Compared to where !? Sweden or Canada yes, but compared to about 90% of the rest of the world, no. Almost all of Africa, South America, China,India, Russia , Eastern Europe, Latin America, The Caribbean and most of the Middle east are actually a step behind us.

ckeego

pmcmahon wrote: »

oh no,not a government doing what's best for the country? :rolleyes:

you got the credit card,deal with it.

A government doing what's best for the country would have jailed many of those who were behind it.

Yes I do have a credit card and will pay it off at the end of the month.

However, there are many others out there who won't be able to, this month nor next unfortunately.

Nice 'tude by the way...

davet82

pmcmahon wrote: »

we're mostly middle field of the best.

we're ranked in the top twenty in the world for standard of living...

i'll try find the link, i think we came in around 13th.

The report takes everything from education, weather, disasters, econmic, social and compiles them and compares them to other developed countries

666irishguy

It's only people in first world countries that ask this kind of question, so yes we are a first world country. Those in the Third world are usually too busy trying to just live to ponder such things. To be lucky enough to be born in Ireland or any other country in Western Europe is something we take for granted.

Celly Smunt

ckeego wrote: »

A government doing what's best for the country would have jailed many of those who were behind it.

That wouldn't have benefitted the country at all,in fact it would have cost more to house them up in hotel mountjoy.

ckeego wrote: »

Yes I do have a credit card and will pay it off at the end of the month.

However, there are many others out there who won't be able to, this month nor next unfortunately.

Nice 'tude by the way...

Then you can pay it,so pay it.For those who can't it's their own fault,nobody forced them to use their credit card.Their credit card debt is also in the last line of things that have to be paid.If they can pay all their bills and not pay their credit card they aren't too bad off in the grand scheme of things.

penzo

The etymology of the term is irrelevent we all know what he means.

but yes of course we are still a first world country and still quite near the top, the fact that we can even without laughabilty compare and use countries like sweden and germany as models shows how high we are.

Celly Smunt

davet82 wrote: »

we're ranked in the top twenty in the world for standard of living...

i'll try find the link, i think we came in around 13th.

The report takes everything from education, weather, disasters, econmic, social and compiles them and compares them to other developed countries

middle field of the best is around 13th

seamus

"Are we still a 1st world country?"

Bloody drama queens. "I can only afford the basic sky package now, this is a humanitarian disaster".

WanabeOlympian

Yes we are really quite wealthy still even in this economic downturn/disaster. Kind of a weird question.

Where To

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/countries/ireland/

Looks first world to me.

davet82

pmcmahon wrote: »

middle field of the best is around 13th

not out of over 100 countries... :pac:

seriously though the UN runs the Human Development Index and in 2011 we finish 7th on that list from a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income

bobo26b

pmcmahon wrote: »

That wouldn't have benefitted the country at all,in fact it would have cost more to house them up in hotel mountjoy.


Then you can pay it,so pay it.For those who can't it's their own fault,nobody forced them to use their credit card.Their credit card debt is also in the last line of things that have to be paid.If they can pay all their bills and not pay their credit card they aren't too bad off in the grand scheme of things.

Interestingly enough Brazil's growing middle class is running into problems of being debt and largely to do with credit cards, mainly due to the fact that they have not been educated on how credit cards work with their terms and conditions. I wonder if you could compare this to when the Irish first started running into money with a growing middle class. Had we been made more aware of the dangers of borrowing would we be a more money aware society.

Difference Engine

We are ranked 7th in the Human Development Index by the UN. Link here

We have our problems but we have it very good compared to the rest of the world.

Edit: davet82 beat me to it.

2ndcoming

Am I really gonna waste my 500th post replying to a question this stupid??

james142

Keno 92 wrote: »

Absolutely. Having to walk about 10 feet to the fridge to get bottled water is starting to take its toll.

Where is our Concern eh?

Whats this 'bottled water' you speak of?

Capt'n Midnight

Interesting.
All those people who voted 2nd world without knowing what it meant.

Because we've never been a 2nd world country by any stretch of the imagination.

Seaneh

bobo26b wrote: »

Just wondering with all the sh*te that has gone on in Ireland over the last few years, can we still call ourselves a 1st world country. Is it possible that we may have slid into being some sort of 2nd tier 1st world country or 2nd world country.

Lads were talking about this in the pub the other night most thought we were still a 1st world country, I'm not sure I think we could have slipped a bit into some form of 2nd tier group.

So what do ye think??

We, luckily, still have one of the highest standards of living in the world.

If you'd ever even been to one of the poorer EU countries, you'd see that. Go visit rural Romania for a start. Then you have the poorer Non-EU countries, like Albania or Macedonia, you want to see what a developing European country looks like and the standard of living for poor people there, go. Both are beautiful countries but visiting some of the smaller villages will give you some idea of the gulf in the standards we live in and they live in.


Then you have the developing South American countries like Ecuador and Especially Bolivia, where it's perfectly normal for people to live in rubish dumps.
Entire communities of people who live in landfills and make their money from recycling stuff from the rubbish. I volunteered with a charity in Portoveijo Ecuador who delivered water and meds to families on two of the cities landfills, every few days we'd load massive water tanks into the back of a few pick up trucks and drive to the dumps and fill the families water bottles/jerry cans/buckets/etc.
And this wasn't water that is safe to drink, this Ecuadorian tap water, you can't even brush your teeth with it or you'd have the ****s for a week and these families had this as their only source of water, for drinking, cooking bathing, everything!

If you want to see just how lucky we are here, go to one of those countries and get some ****ing perspective.

BTW, I haven't even mentioned Sub Saharan Africa...


p.s.
The terms First world and Third World haven't been used since the 80's, there are Developed Countries and Developing countries and different levels of both.

Higher end of developed: German,, The US, The UK, Ireland, Japan, Canada, Australia, etc
Lower end of developed: Portugal, Romania, Croatia, South Africa, etc.

Higher end of Developing: Peru, Albania, Jamica, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, Morocco , etc
Lower end of Developing, Southern Sudan, Mali, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho, Nepal, etc

areyawell

When Ireland stops paying 188 euro to people on the dole, when children are dying of starvation, when theres no clean water for miles, when the land turns to desert, when you are living in shanty towns then maybe could discuss it like Ethiopia and third world countries.


Go to Moldova,Albania, Ukraine,Bosnia if you want to witness a "second world country". Christ people in Ireland have no clue how handy they have it!

Icepick

'Still' implies that there was some kind of pinnacle of development Ireland achieved and is sliding from.

Can you point me to it, OP?

Statistically, the country looked richer in the past, but that was a bubble that we are paying for now.
Things might have seemed better in the past but that was because loads of things were not reported or covered up.

BBDBB

Here is an interesting analogy which gave me some perspective

If the world were a village of 100 people

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNnbO8x4JAY


edit, the financial stuff is towards the 3 minute mark

Seaneh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNnbO8x4JAY

Downlinz

Threads like this is why we're such a pathetic group of people. We drop from top 5 to about 15th and half the country emigrate and liken our situation to Africa.

It's like living in South Park with the levels of hysteria.

YFlyer

Keno 92 wrote: »

Absolutely. Having to walk about 10 feet to the fridge to get bottled water is starting to take its toll.

Where is our Concern eh?

Yeah we're still a First World Country.

nocoverart

A recession is a first world problem, kind of ironic really

BBDBB

Just watched another Youtube 100 people village world

If you keep your food in a fridge, your clothes in a closet, sleep in a bed and have a roof over your head

you are richer than 75% of the population of the world

tdv123

Well I personally feel like we are a 3rd world country, my huge HD TV takes up way too much space in my living room, I can only eat takeaway food 3 nights a week & the 10 minutes it takes me to to collect my weekly 188 is far too time consuming.