Because the original concept of “ordinal world country” came out of the Cold War:

• “first world” was US/Western affiliated/allied
• “second world” was USSR affiliated/allied
• ”third world” just meant “none of the above” for a very long time

However, since then, understanding of the term in popular discourse has somewhat shifted from geopolitical affiliation to a vague amalgam of socioeconomic status/GDP/“are you a pariah state”/etc.

On a less serious note: the US is really just several dozen 3rd world countries in a trenchcoat essentially relying on (but also politically backstabbing) the economic product of like 5 or 6 states that could be first world economies in their own right

Did you figure it out yet?

Because the majority of old people are rich and there are still the echoes of a real middle class. Let's see if Trump gets elected and everyone with the cash to do so flees his outrageous proposed tariffs.

Personally, terms like 'first world' and 'third world' are pointless to me.

No country is without flaws, I'd say, because most countries are inhabited by people.

I 100% agree; the thing is they measure this stuff by the mean so a few outliers (rich districts or billionaires) make things look reasonable by number.

Because of their modern and huge airforce and army, along with all the big tech companies, and Hollywood.

The PR image of America is quite nice. The reality, not that great.

I don't like the government system, I don't like the police, I don't like anything to do with this country's government. I just don't like it, because... they're sneaky, like I said - they're deceitful, they're lying, they're cheats, they rip the people off. That's the American government for you. America is a third world country, and people don't recognise it... and I think that that's pretty god damn sad, that they don't recognise their own country as a third world, third rate, third class slum

Add political violence to your list.

It's mostly the stable government, infrastructure, currency and tech.

Pretty much why I've been calling the US a 3rd world country for years.

Your"IMO" aren't opinions; those are the facts, jack

IMO, no country that primarily uses toilet paper instead of a bidet is 1st world.