Among other things it means that the future of this coun­tries is to become developed. We are in our way to devel­op­ment and we assume that’s a great thing: we will have bet­ter edu­ca­tion, bet­ter health care, a more equi­tat­i­ble society.

But let’s stop to con­sider for a minute if devel­oped coun­tries are some­thing we want to turn into. Are peo­ple in devel­oped coun­tries hap­pier or health­ier? Do they live a bet­ter life? Do they have a bet­ter under­stand­ing of nature and live in a bet­ter equi­lib­rium with the envi­ron­ment? Do they live in peace? Sadly the answer to most of this ques­tions is no, or yes in some cases but not sig­nif­i­cantly so.

The fol­low­ing list with the excep­tion of Cuba and North Korea comes from the IMF World Eco­nomic Out­look Report of Octo­ber 2009. Strictly speak­ing the coun­tries listed are devel­op­ing and emerg­ing economies, which in pop­u­lar jar­gon are the Sec­ond and Third World.