Mental Floss 2015-04-22T04:03:17+00:00 2014-09-05T16:44:28+00:00
2014-09-08T17:26:13+00:00 There's a First World. There's a Third
World. Is There a Second World? Matt Soniak  We often hear about
the plights of the Third World, and most of us have our share of
First World problems. But is there something in between—a Second
World?  There sure is: the Commies (and now former Commies).
Today, people use the terms First or Third World to rank the
development of countries or the strength of their economy. This
is a pretty recent development, and veers away from the original
usage of the terms, which were coined during the Cold War as
part of a rough—and now outdated—model of geopolitical
alliances.  The Cold War and the creation of NATO (a military
and collective defense alliance formed by the U.S. and its
western allies) and the Warsaw Pact (a defense treaty between
several communist states in Eastern Europe) roughly divided the
major world powers into two spheres with differing political and
economic structures