[Poohbah]

Is it true or not, that the US was the wealthiest nation in the world, and the largest creditor.

Still the wealthiest by a wide margin.

I understand that the US is now the largest debtor nation in the world.

Who's the biggest creditor, then?

[biffalobull]

Who's the biggest creditor, then?

Dunno, but I understand it is not the US.

[FITZ]

Still the wealthiest by a wide margin.

And Mexico is one of the world's wealthiest countries also but that doesn't mean it's not third world. Third world countries have the very rich ---and they can have a sizeable number of very rich, but in third world countries, the majority of people are barely making it. In this part of the US, only a third of the people now have private insurance and welfare rates are about 40%, one third the salaries are exactly minimum wage and only one out of three makes over $10 an hour ---it seems pretty close to being a third world country.