First-World Cities Are Turning Third-World

Paris, London, NYC—once the gold standard of safety, now struggling with a new reality. Why do the world's greatest cities feel like they're breaking?

For decades, the "First World" promised a specific social contract: if you followed the rules, you were safe. But in the last decade, something shifted. From retail theft behind plexiglass in San Francisco to the knife crime epidemic in London and the "zombie apocalypse" of open-air drug markets, the feeling of safety is evaporating.

In this video, we break down how policy changes, decriminalization, and a disappearing middle class have transformed our most iconic cities. Is it just a shift in perception, or is the developed world dream actually fading?

If you’ve noticed this shift in your own city, let’s talk about it in the comments.

Subscribe to "How Did We Get Here" to join us as we uncover the patterns of the modern world that changed right under our noses -    / @howdidwegethere-u5z  

0:00 The Death of the First-World Dream
1:10 The Cities We Used to Know
2:00 Retail theft
3:29 Fentanyl and the Crisis on the Sidewalk
4:25 Europe’s Shift: London & Sweden
5:28 The "Catch and Release" Legal Loophole
8:17 The Flight of the Middle Class
9:44 How did we get here?

#UrbanDecay #CityLife