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Comment by ericd | Hacker News Reader

It’s really not. Go down to Dhaka’s main river. Gag due to the clouds of gas coming off the raw sewage, and watch as people wash themselves and their clothes in the same river that people are shitting in. It’s absolutely absurd to compare the US to anything like it.

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Guess we have different expectations for a first-world country then. This kind of sewage-borne disease should have been eliminated in any developed country, a hookworm infestation is soil-transmitted, you acquire it by walking through sewage.

The municipalities can't fix the sewage system, and the health authorities can't screen for intestinal worms and hand out medication worth pennies. It's shameful to see.

I'm not saying that the US shouldn't do better, it absolutely should. But it's also important to try to keep a little perspective, and be thankful for how lucky we are.

There is an actual commenter here suggesting Flint is an example of "3rd world country".

You'd think in the age of YouTube people would have more perspective on the rest of the world. Seriously, one stroll down the giant open air landfills (which double as housing for hundreds of people) of Dhaka should be enough to be eternally thankful for what one has.

The poster you mention absolutely does not say that. The poster says Flint’s clean water problems are the kind you would find in a 3rd world country.

I think you are clearly misreading both the article and people’s comments to it. No one is suggesting the US is a 3rd world country. But in certain areas it’s statistics resemble 3rd world country outcomes more than it does developed country outcomes.

The reason this is important is that the US is usually an outlier in developed countries in this area, which means solutions to these problems exist.

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