{"id":11872,"date":"2019-06-20T08:19:44","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T15:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11872"},"modified":"2019-06-20T08:19:44","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T15:19:44","slug":"americas-first-third-world-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/americas-first-third-world-state\/","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s First Third-World State"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Third World\u201d is now an anachronistic geographical term of the old Cold War. But after 1989, \u201cThird World\u201d was reinvented from a political noun into an adjective to mean more than just Asian, African, and Latin American nations nonaligned with either the West or the Soviet bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather, the current modifier \u201cThird World\u201d has come to transcend geography, politics, and ethnicity. It simply denotes poor failed states all over the globe of all races and religions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Third World symptomologies are predictably corrupt government, unequal or nonexistent applicability of the law, two rather than three classes, and the return of medieval diseases. Third World nations suffer from high taxes and poor social services, premodern infrastructure and utilities, poor transportation, tribalism, gangs, and lack of security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another chief characteristic of a Third World society is the official denial of all of the above, and a vindictive, almost hysterical state response to anyone who points out those obvious tragedies. Another is massive out-migration. Residents prefer almost any country other than their own. Think Somalia, Venezuela, Cuba, Libya, or Guatemala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Does 21st-century California increasingly fit that definition \u2014 despite having the nation\u2019s most amenable climate and most beautiful and diverse geography, with major natural ports facing the dynamic Asian economies, and being naturally rich in timber, agriculture, mining, and energy, and blessed with a prior century\u2019s inheritance of effective local and state government?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2019\/06\/california-third-world-state-corruption-crime-infrastructure\/\">Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review \u2018Third World\u201d is now an anachronistic geographical term of the old Cold War. But after 1989, \u201cThird World\u201d was reinvented from a political noun into an adjective to mean more than just Asian, African, and Latin American nations nonaligned with either the West or the Soviet bloc. Rather, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-35u","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4209,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/reconsidering-farm-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":11872,"position":0},"title":"Reconsidering Farm Policy","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Why the government should stop subsidizing agri-business. by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The European Union says it's now considering reducing agricultural subsidies for farmers (if the United States does as well), and our government, to its credit, is calling the E.U.'s bluff. The U.S. has proposed cutting farm\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;November 2005&quot;","block_context":{"text":"November 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/november-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5484,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/suffering-mascots\/","url_meta":{"origin":11872,"position":1},"title":"Suffering Mascots","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Why the West fails to understand humanity in Africa by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers American Idol\u00a0has been a remarkable success. The show revives the old myth of Pygmalion to chronicle the transformation of ordinary Americans into pop-stars and instant celebrities, a plot-line familiar from a thousand Broadway plays and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bruce S. Thornton&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9376,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/will-california-ever-thrive-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":11872,"position":2},"title":"Will California Ever Thrive Again?","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The state is sinking, and its wealthy class is full of hypocrites. By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online There was more of the same-old, same-old California news recently. Some 62 percent of state roads have been rated poor or mediocre. There were more predications of huge cost overruns\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;California&quot;","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/california\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11970,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/israels-good-and-bad-new-realities\/","url_meta":{"origin":11872,"position":3},"title":"Israel\u2019s Good and Bad New Realities","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review One of the most radical changes in the labyrinth of the Middle East is the near cessation of the old formal hostility of the Arab nations to Israel. That does not mean that the destruction of the Jewish state is not still a commandment\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3726,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/what-is-annanism\/","url_meta":{"origin":11872,"position":4},"title":"What Is Annanism?","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The triumph of the therapeutic over the tragic. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Everyone seems to take some\u00a0joy in listening to outgoing secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, especially during the holidays. But just as with other such ethicists as a lip-biting Bill Clinton or creased-browed Jimmy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;December 2006&quot;","block_context":{"text":"December 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/december-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9856,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-oroville-dam-disaster-is-yet-another-example-of-californias-decline\/","url_meta":{"origin":11872,"position":5},"title":"The Oroville Dam disaster is yet another example of California&#8217;s decline","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ Los Angeles Times A year ago, politicians and experts were predicting a near-permanent statewide drought, a \u201cnew normal\u201d desert climate. The most vivid example of how wrong they were is that California\u2019s majestic Oroville Dam is currently in danger of spillway failure in a season of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Water&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Water","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/water\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/la-mfleischer-1487111549-snap-photo-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/la-mfleischer-1487111549-snap-photo-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/la-mfleischer-1487111549-snap-photo-1024x576.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11873,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11872\/revisions\/11873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}