Reply #131: It was used to describe the USSR by political scientists

[nadinbrzezinski]

It entails a country that is well industrialized (we can argue that for the US right now) but who's values are not exactly those of a modern country...

Of course chiefly it is described by indices such as child mortality, which was higher in the USSR... and it is high in the US, as well as median income level.

It is an old term really.

And even if the US fits definitions economically of a developed economy, it fits more, in my view, the definition of an empire in decline.

The attitude that the arts don't matter and football does well to me is indicative of that as well. Bread and circuses come to mind, as the muffins bake by the way.