[bell-cot]

"Third World" is very much a Cold War term, with roots in French history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World#Etymology

While often used in condescending or pejorative ways...do consider what happened to the French First Estate and Second Estate during the French Revolution.

[forinti]

I prefer to use "peripheral economies". It's even more pejorative but it shows the way and better describes the situation.

"Third world" actually seems like an euphemism to me. It makes me think of a race and gives you the false hope of improving in the future by just playing along the same game.

[bell-cot]

> "Third world" actually seems like...

False hope for the downtrodden, if they just keep playing the game - that was an age-old feature of human society, back when they were stuck building pyramids for their dear departed betters.

OTOH, a number of nations which seemed hopelessly stuck at the bottom of the pyramid back in 1952 are now doing pretty well, some even by First World standards.