How Did the Economies of the Third World Get to Where They Are Today

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So how did the economies of the third world get to where they are today? There is an ongoing debate on the question of the status of the various states in the Third World, sometimes referred to as the post-colonial societies. One main question is exactly how did the Third world economies ended up where they are today. I will first give some background on what constitutes a Third World country and the resulting factors that got them to where they are today. While doing so I will point out the economic issues and the challenges that they face going forward. Let’s look at First, Second and Third World Countries. According to some the developed capitalist countries constitute the “First World." Capitalism is generally considered to be an economic system that includes private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive markets, voluntary exchange, and wage labor. Capitalist countries would include the vast majority of countries including almost all liberal democracies and most authoritarian systems in the world. These countries use capitalism as their dominant economic system. Here is a partial list including the United States, Canada and Mexico, all of the 27 countries of the European Union (Ireland, UK, France, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Malta, Cyprus, Austria, The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Greece), as well as many, many other countries (such as Australia, Japan, India, Egypt, Tunisia, Indonesia, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, Botswana, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Russia, Turkey. The socialist countries are generally called the “Second World.” A socialist economic system would consist of an organization of
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