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Comment by blocked_again | Hacker News Reader

> third world you have to regularly bribe police,

Been living in India for more than 2 decades. Never had to bribe the police once.

> hope no one visits your family in the middle of the night,

Funny you mentioned that. USA has worse criminal violence than most countries in the world. Gun violence is entirely a US phenomena.

> don't have access to clean food or water.

Never faced the issue of clean food or drinking water in my entire life. And I am from lower middle class.

> Even life at the lowest rungs of US culture have it way better than most in a third world country

Really? I prefer to live in a country where I can afford healthcare atleast. Probably a great idea to visit some so called "third world" countries and see for yoursevles. If you dont have time for that read Fact-fullness.

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India is number 2 on this list, the US is 14:

https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Violen...

You haven't had issue with clean water? I'd say you're pretty lucky then:

https://water.org/our-impact/india/

Don't get me wrong but you're one person in ~1.4bn (!). I'm pretty sure your experience isn't applicable to most of the population. Judging by the first statement, one that's contradicted by basically all statistics and most citizens, I'd say your experience may very well be a statistical fluke. [0]

And related to water, we may have different standards for cleanliness. But when the whole world agrees that most of the water is not fit for consumption you have to wonder. [1]

Anecdata. I went with a friend to a wedding in India. And while we were warned to only drink from water bottles that we unseal ourselves (we even received refilled bottles of water in the Hilton hotel we were living in), my friend did not account for the ice cubes in his drinks. The outcome wasn't pretty.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_India

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_pollution_in_India

Yes. The issue was that the OP used this phrase which is a great exaggeration

> Even life at the lowest rungs of US culture have it way better than most in a third world country

I agree that some portion of my country is living in bad conditions. But majority are not and nobody is going to trade their spot for the lowest rungs of US culture. Don't get me wrong. I have been to US as well. I would probably trade my place with a person living in a good neighbourhoodn with his own house in California if I was offered Greencard and a job with good salary. But lowest rungs of US culture? Defintely not.

You have to look at Per Capita. India is a far more populous country than the US.

And guess what. The US is at 99 and India is at 107 which reinforces the idea that the US has developing country outcomes in certain areas. It’s not the worst (there are 98 worse countries), but it’s signficanrly worse than its wealth should indicate it should be.

I have lived in Europe earning an above average salary for a swe and never saved enough to really feel I made it in life. The healthcare was just good enough, almost mediocre and living there felt like all in all just "good enough".

I moved to Asia, to a country with much lower taxes and live a much better life.

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