First & Third World, What's a "Second World" Country?

If I say the words “Third World Country”, what image springs to mind? Most likely something out of a World Vision commercial: starving children, ramshackle villages of corrugated metal huts, dirty water, disease, corruption, human rights abuses, and war. Now, what about a “First World Country?” Well, if you’re watching this video right now, odds are you live in one of those: wealthy, industrially developed, and democratic. And finally, what do you think of when I say “Second World Country?” If you’ve just drawn an enormous blank, you’re not alone. While the terms “First World” and “Third World” are part of our everyday vocabulary, the “Second World” that should logically complete the trio almost never comes up. Nor, for that matter, do the definitions of “First World” and “Third World”, the terms largely being used as convenient but vague stand-ins for “rich countries” and “poor countries”. So, what is the “Second World”, anyway? What actually makes a country “First World” or “Third World”? And who came up with this classification system, anyway? Let’s find out, shall we? This is an abridged version of a video on our channel TodayIFoundOut which you can check out and subscribe to here: https://www.youtube.com/@TodayIFoundOut?sub_confirmation=1