It's not Economics. It's Common Sense. Once upon a time, all Newly Independent Countries were practically the same. Over time, some have industrialised and developed. Others lag far behind. So, calling the latter third world or developing or least developed countries is unnecessarily complicating things. These countries are simply "Laggard Economies". They lag behind, by far, their peers with whom they started the development project at the same time. Some of the reasons for lagging behind include presence of characters like godfathers, plundering settlers, etc. who account for thieving of tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars per year from them. In addition, they maintain colonial economic structures. It is, therefore, a matter of restructuring these economies and fixing a few things like democracy and dysfunctionalism, stopping thieving, and with a global conscience added, the Laggard Economies can well be on the path to industrialisation and prosperity.