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Comment by rplnt | Hacker News Reader

You seriously consider parts of Europe to be a 3rd world countries?

I think going with that nomenclature most of those countries (Ukraine, Hungry, etc) would be second world countries. If I remember correctly folks in the US coined those terms during the cold war. The first world countries were the US and allies, second the USSR and allies and third world the unaffiliated countries. Third world has come to be used as a term for impoverished countries as many of the unallied countries at that time were rather poor, but that wasn't the meaning. Somebody should definitely spot check me on this postulate before they accept it as fact.

Originally, first world = NATO + allies, second world = soviet bloc, third world = countries that were politically and economically too poor to warrant investing much effort in. It was a Cold War thing.

These days, first world is synonymous with 'developed', third with 'developing' and second doesn't really have a meaning.

Yes, the standard of living in too much of Eastern Europe is quite low. Perhaps not as bad as some of the _worst_ of 3rd world countries, but low enough to make the $12/hour the author paid quite high.

I don't know about Ukraine but I think that standard of living is not low in EU countries such as Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary or Slovakia. In all of these countries is $12/hour well above average salary. In the CS field it's probably below average, but you wouldn't have problems with finding a skilled student for that pay for example.

By the definition posted bellow they are all 1st world countries. In what I consider a 3rd world country most citizens don't have access to clean water, "proper" housing, health-care, etc... and $12 is closer to a weekly salary. And I'm pretty sure the lowest standard of living is much worse (and affects higher percentage in population) in India or all of the South America than it is in Ukraine.

I'm from Europe and I somethimes feel like that. North- and West-Europe (France, Germany, Sweden, UK and stuff) is mostly Okay, but the South and the East is like they are stuck in the past.

According to the original definition, the region in question was all Second World. According to the modern definition, there are developing nations in Europe (eg Albania, Belorus).

I'm from eastern bloc. It's just an expression.

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