> In 3rd-world countries even basic healthcare is totally inaccessible unless someone in your family is at the top level of government. If you're a worker or in a worker family even glasses are probably almost impossible to get.

I know for sure this is totally wrong, because I have lived in 3rd world countries, and I was born in one. You're just imagining stuff.

I visited a few rural cities in the Central African republic ~15 years ago and this situation definitely exists (existed?) there. Your best bet is to try to get care in a monastery, but it's not like they have glasses or anything other than basic medicine.

The Central African Republic is among the poorest of countries in the world, so that situation might exist there.

But many (most?) 3rd world countries, like Ghana where I was born, are nowhere near this level of misery.

The root of your disagreement lies in the fact that "The Third World" isn't really a useful abstraction anymore.

Plenty of former 3rd world countries are middle-income now. There is just no comparison between living in Thailand vs. South Sudan, even though there might be in the 1950s.

Time to toss the expression entirely, it doesn't really describe anything concrete anymore. The world has changed.