re: comparison of US v. others. You have a good point, although European countries by now have their own poor immigrant populations. US does have other advantages though – more personal transportation, larger houses, more disperse communities. Some of US advantages may work against public safety, though – air conditioning, and, most of all, distrust of government. I did not look a lot on research of comparing countries, but one that I saw claims that level of trust and unity, both government and society in general, is predictive of safety. Maybe it is simply a proxy for lack of minorities. Anyway, as any middah, this distrust of authority is generally helpful, but needs to be controlled. As we say about tefillin: the head one is divided, the arm is not: when it is time to act, there is a need for unity.
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