My response to northern neighbors who are alarmed when they learn that we winter in Mexico has recently acquired some better traction.

In the past I would patiently explain that the state of Yucatan has a lower annual murder rate (per 100,000 pop) than ANY of our 50 states. But a new article in Scientific American enables me to share some further insight. It reports that USA is one of the  most violent nations on the planet. Especially telling is a Harvard study summarized in the article which says the key factor has to do with financial inequality, which is horribly on the rise. Here’s a quote, and a link:

“. . . the United States has one of the highest murder rates in the industrialized world. Of the 34 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the U.S. ranks fifth in homicidesjust behind Brazil (highest), Mexico, Russia, and Estonia. Our nation also holds the dubious honor of being responsible for half of the worst mass shootings in the last 30 years. How can we explain why the United States has nearly three times more murders per capita than neighboring Canada and ten times more than Japan? What makes the land of the free such a dangerous place to live?”  [Hint: allowing Banksters to devastate our middle class is not the safe direction to go.]

SOURCE: The Joker’s Wild: On the Ecology of Gun Violence in America