Come on, let’s keep it real. Maybe where YOU lived it was third world, but not in my neck of the woods.
It’s 3rd world in many places. Los Angeles Downtown is absolutely 3rd world. Most of the San Fernando valley, which is part of Los Angeles and has 2 million residents is very much Mexico. I don’t see America in those places.
Small town California is ,I’m sure , quite nice. But any small town in America is good, just about.
I live here. I work here. I will not retire here. I’m going back to my small town. Either the one in Ohio, or Michigan.
That is called normalcy bias :-)