I always thought it aligned with cold war alliances, in which case brazil would be third world.

Not a terribly meaningful phrase on the whole.... china’s doing well these days, but you’re only going to feel that if you happen to be in the middle or upper class, for example.

China is a second world country by definition.

I guess that was kind of my point: the terms don’t map well to any concrete economic description.

Third world does not have to do with the size of the economy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World

You should read what you post, it was coined doing the Cold War but it had to do with developing countries and their economy back when influence was king.

The Cold War ended 20 years ago though, and since then the term started to mean “poor/backwards” countries.

Now in the case if Brazil, you’re post-industrialized country with the worlds 9th largest economy.

You simply don’t fit any definition of the “third world”.

Just to remind you that we are all getting old -- its much closer to 30 years since the cold war ended.