Discussion Title: Are problems in developing countries worse than developed ones?

1. Problems in the developing world are worse than problems in the developed world.
1.1. Pro: [Rates of poverty](https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/19/poverty-increasing-in-developed-countries-ilo.html) are higher in developing countries, which makes their populations more vulnerable and less likely to be able to support themselves in emergencies or harsh times.
1.1.1. Pro: States in the developing world often cannot afford to finance social welfare projects to the degree that states in the developed world can. This makes the problems of the poor in these countries even more acute.
1.2. Con: In some cases, problems faced by minority communities in developed countries are more acute than problems faced by the general populations of developing countries.
1.3. Con: At times, third world countries do not contribute to the industrialized economy as those in first world countries, yet receive the benefits from it and them.
1.3.1. Pro: China is providing [$60 bil to Africa](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-africa/chinas-xi-says-funds-for-africa-not-for-vanity-projects-idUSKCN1LJ0C4), yet Africa has not paid back its debtors in other countries. Not paying debts is a sign of not contributing to the industrialized economy, yet receiving benefits from it.
1.3.1.1. Con: Not paying back its debtors can also be a sign that they are 'out of loop', because they have no money, due to being economically isolated.
1.3.2. Con: [Work hours](https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/\@dgreports/\@dcomm/\@publ/documents/publication/wcms_104895.pdf) of third world countries are generally higher so a claim that third world countries do not work as hard is unfounded. Figure 3.2 shows that low-income countries \(which represent developing nations\) tend to have more work hours. As the income level rises \(high incomes are usually in developed countries\), work hours go down, creating a negative correlation. This conclusion is talked about on page 31.
1.3.2.1. Pro: The [top 3 countries](http://fortune.com/2015/11/11/chart-work-week-oecd/) with the most work hours are developing countries, according to the [map](https://cdn.howmuch.net/content/images/full_map-3-c2c2.jpg).
1.3.3. Con: The reason this happens though, is to help developing nations transition to the industrialized economy. The benefits are an investment to the contributions of developing nations, rather than developing nations wanting handouts.
1.4. Pro: We should make the distinction between 'problems' and 'inconveniences'. Poorer countries have permanent year round problems such as: access to water, no electricity, corruption, etc. This is opposed to developed countries, who suffer sporadically from minor to major grievances \(that are more often than not, improved upon using the said countries vast financial resources\).
1.4.1. Con: In the current global [economic system](https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-31572009000400002), "inconveniences" in the first world can cause problems in the developing world too. Even though the issue itself is less severe, the overall accumulation is, as it affects a greater geographic range and more people. Demand and consumption in Europe, for instance, is linked to the incomes of producers in the developing world who sell their goods to people in Europe.
1.5. Con: Even if the problem in general is not that big, problems that start in developed countries affect more people than with developing countries, because the developing countries look up to the developed countries as a model for how to develop.
1.5.1. Pro: Developing countries run into developed countries' problems once they develop.
1.5.1.1. Pro: Not only that, but developing countries lose some of their nice features when they develop. One of them is a lack of self-expression, seen with gentrification.
1.5.1.1.1. Pro: Artists tend to create an area suitable for gentrification, yet once the gentrification process begins, [original artists get pushed out due to rising costs](https://www.planetizen.com/node/60355), limiting their artistic expression that they had in the past.
1.5.1.1.2. Con: Gentrification creates a place for self-expression to occur that would not be there before. Even if some people leave with gentrification, others get supported and thrive, like [tech and design](https://www.planetizen.com/node/60355).
1.5.1.2. Con: These problems were often already there, they were just not being noticed: it is not hard to see that the amount of depression diagnoses will increase once a country starts containing psychologists.
1.5.1.3. Pro: Westernization of developing nations causes public health issues for them, namely [obesity](https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-causes/globalization-and-obesity/).
1.5.1.4. Pro: Demographic transition entails [explosive population growth](https://oyc.yale.edu/molecular-cellular-and-developmental-biology/mcdb-150/lecture-14), which can be problematic for those countries already overcrowded.
1.5.1.5. Pro: Globalization creates cultural [homogeneity](http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/culture-and-development/the-future-we-want-the-role-of-culture/globalization-and-culture/) and [loss](https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2011/10/12895/how-has-globalization-caused-a-loss-of-culture/) \(of their previous cultures to adapt the new, globalized one\).
1.5.1.5.1. Pro: This is seen with changing ideals of [beauty](https://blackhairinformation.com/general-articles/westernization-is-a-problem-across-many-cultures/) during demographic transitions.
1.5.1.6. Con: Demographic transition can increase diseases, but also decrease them, as seen in [Japan's transition](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0091743578902463).
1.5.1.7. Pro: With globalization, comes [climate change](https://www.ukessays.com/essays/politics/globalization-and-global-warming-climate-change-politics-essay.php). Climate change has caused many issues in developed countries, and when developing countries transition, they experience its effects more locally and greater too.
1.5.2. Con: If problems of the developed world are also problems for the developing world but not vice versa, then this means that the developing world has all its own problems plus all the problems of the developed world, making its total of problems obviously more/worse.
1.6. Con: Problems are problems for those who have it. So, it will depend on which of the worlds you are in.
1.6.1. Pro: Sometimes, there's an exploitation of the "first world compassion" just set up to drain funds for enriching NGO individuals, not reaching those "third world problems" they attempted to help [in a first world fashion](https://keyelementsgrp.com/nonprofitpromedia/panama-papers-dark-money-nonprofits/). \(e.g. ["Haiti’s Multi-Billion Dollar Humanitarian Aid Problem"](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/young-professionals-in-foreign-policy/haitis-multi-billion-doll_b_8207494.html)\)
1.6.2. Pro: Often a perceived position of power or development over others may lead to [greater injustices](https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/africa/item/16746-un-peacekeeping-troops-face-scandals-on-sex-crimes-corruption) than the ones that tried to solve.
1.6.3. Con: It does not matter where someone is located. Dying of starvation is the same, whether happens in a third-world country or first-world.
1.6.3.1. Con: However, a person can have a better quality-of-life outside of the equal problem \(like starving\) in a first-world country, rather than a third-.
1.6.3.2. Con: The context is different. In a first-world country, a smaller portion of the population has this issue compared to a third-world country. The comparison might be the same at the individual level, but not at the national one.
1.7. Pro: For various structural reasons, governments in the developing world can not deal with problems in their states. Their inability to deal with these problems means that people necessarily have to suffer more and suffer longer than people living in developed countries.
1.7.1. Pro: Most developing countries have experienced colonialism which deeply affected the degree to which they could solve problems.
1.7.1.1. Pro: Economies within most of these countries remained centered around the production of agrarian goods or the extraction of raw materials to service the needs of the colonial masters. With little to no manufacturing industry of their own, these countries were forced to export raw materials only to buy back finished goods produced in the developed world.
1.7.1.2. Pro: Colonial rule often left strong bureaucracies and militaries as its legacy. These institutions have repeatedly intervened against democratic forces and have prevented economic development.
1.7.1.3. Pro: Because colonialism created the borders of the countries on ambivalent grounds, often different ethnicities, tribes etc. that don't like each other are forced into the same country, thus creating tensions between the tribes that hampers the democracy as well as being a source of conflicts, discrimination and wars.
1.7.2. Pro: Developing countries usually find themselves in debt crises which hamper their attempts at solving problems.
1.7.2.1. Pro: Unsuitable structural adjustment programs imposed on countries that have taken loans from the IMF and World Bank have generally left them worse off.
1.7.3. Pro: Developing countries host the vast majority of the world's population and therefore governments can not keep up with problems without assistance.
1.7.4. Pro: Corruption is often rampant with government employees, which makes things insecure, holds back progress, decreases tax income and causes the rich to more often than is desirable be put in their right, thus crippling any effort to e.g. tax them well or keep them from destroying nature.
1.8. Con: "Problems" of the developed world are often no longer recognized as such, but rather have become part of the status quo of the developed world. Europe was for example once a lot richer in bio-diversity with far-stretching forests, hardly anyone in Europe nowadays argues for increase of forest-area, while stopping forest decrease is an important topic in developing countries even though they have more of it.
1.9. Pro: Many scientists recognize that the scale of the problems we face as societies have increasingly become problems of a global scale e.g. the ozone hole, global warming, tax evasion through tax havens. Though these problems are of a global scale, they tend to hurt worse in the developing world because the developing world doesn't have the ability to work against the symptoms, Netherlands can easily build 2 meter more on its dikes, in India, [hundreds drown and millions lose their homes.](http://time.com/5374239/india-kerala-flood-prevention/)
1.9.1. Pro: In the cases of these problems the sources of the problems can't be taken on by one country, they can only be taken on in global unison \(which is bureaucratic and thus slow\), so only the protection against the symptoms is important in the determination of how bad the problem is for a country, this does usually mean it is worse for developing countries.
1.9.2. Pro: The results of this worse hurt again decreases the countries' ability to work on improving their country. In India's example from the parent claim, millions being displaced means that those people will be economically unproductive. Besides that, their usual work environments will also need to be rebuilt/bought before they can be economically productive and gain the state tax income
1.10. Pro: Developed countries often have stronger negotiating power: if Europe or America don't get what they want, they can force a developing country on its knees with a trade embargo or even a military show-off. In cases of international problems such as global warming, drugs trafficking, etc. this negotiating power means that international problems that are important for developed countries are more likely to be taken on internationally.
1.10.1. Pro: Developing countries always have to keep into account their reputation with the developed world, while developed world can deal with it if they have a negative reputation. This means that the developed world cannot negotiate as hard as the developing world can: America is allowed to threaten that they will invade but Brazil isn't allowed to threaten that it will burn all its forests down and thus drastically decrease bio-diversity, which the developed world cares a lot about.
1.10.1.1. Pro: The developing countries rely on developed countries for more complex products that are necessary for their economy to work. India for example needs to have a good enough reputation to be able to buy machines that they are unable to produce themselves as they don't have the expertise for it.
1.10.1.2. Pro: Developing countries need to keep up their reputation to get development money.
1.10.1.3. Pro: Developing countries need to have a good reputation so that other countries won't invade their countries or encourage protests like the Arab Spring.
1.10.2. Pro: Developing countries tend to get exploited by developed ones and don't even receive the benefits \(mainly the developed ones do\), but suffer many of the costs without help of cleanup \(as seen with resource exploitation and devastation\).
1.11. Pro: Many basic needs are not met in third-world countries, whereas they are in first world countries.
1.11.1. Pro: Developing countries are characterised by weak states that are inept at providing or unable to provide citizens with social welfare.
1.11.2. Pro: Some third-world countries run into issues when they receive benefits, as seen with voluntourism \([1](https://matadornetwork.com/change/why-you-shouldnt-participate-in-voluntourism/), [2](https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/voluntourism-good-or-bad/)\). This puts third world countries worse off than before \(which is bad to begin with\), a misallocation problem virtually unseen in the developed world.
1.11.3. Con: Many basic needs are not met in first world countries too. Otherwise those countries would not have homelessness, poverty, or hunger, not just a case or two, but at a massive level.
1.11.3.1. Con: In these cases it is often a case of unwillingness \(on the side of the state\) rather than inability to provide these people with their primary needs. America would, for example, be able to provide the level of care that Sweden does, but chooses not to because it believes in a very capitalist notion of freedom.
1.12. Con: One person's problem is everyone's problem. If there exists someone who has problems \(no matter where they occur\), everyone gets affected by them somehow.
1.12.1. Con: One person's problem may effect everyone to some extent, but the extent or meaning of the effect differs generally. For examle exploitation of sweat-shop laborers is not a problem to big owners of e.g. the fashion industry, in fact the system that enables it is an asset to them, it benefits them.
1.12.2. Pro: The [Butterfly Effect](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/422809/when-the-butterfly-effect-took-flight/) is a mathematical example that shows how something small that affects one person ends up larger and affecting more people than originally intended.
1.13. Con: Everything is relative. If you are used to one banana a day, two bananas are great. If you have one car, a second one would be equally great. You could say problems are in absolute terms worse in developing countries, but problems are linked to happiness. Happiness is relative.
1.13.1. Pro: Even if a problem is smaller, if it could be perceived as being larger than larger issues even. This could lead to greater consequences than issues in developing countries, which would make seemingly simpler problems in reality worse if exaggerated in one's mind.
1.13.2. Con: Since happiness is subjective and difficult to measure, a better way to determine whose problems are worse is through the concept of [well-being](https://iep.utm.edu/sen-cap/). This refers to the freedom we have in making choices that impact our lives. In the developing world, this freedom is relatively less.
1.14. Pro: Developing countries' issues are two-fold. Developing countries may start with third-world issues only to come into first-world ones. Developed countries only have to face first-world ones.
1.14.1. Con: Because the developed countries face first-world problems before developing countries do, they come up with solutions to those issues. Developing countries do not need to worry about those issues as much, because they are resolved by the time the countries modernize.
1.14.2. Con: Regardless of which issue each type of country faces, both are facing issues on a daily-basis for the same length of time. Neither is worse \(except in severity\) than the other unless the issues get resolved.
1.15. Pro: Developed nations tend to help out developing nations' issues, as they're more severe, than their own. This leads to neglect of the home country, which creates more and worse issues, while the more severe issues improve.