I think you're onto something Naemanson--and the reason you're right, especially about the safety issue, is the much greater disparity of wealth in the US. In the US there are a lot of people on the bottom of the economic pile--many more than elsewhere--look for example at the difference in pay between a CEO and the lowest -paid employee in a company in the US--and compare to the same relationship outside the US. There have in fact been articles about this in the Wall St Journal.

Main problem is there are so many at the very bottom of the economic pile in the US--who feel that their lives are worthless--so by extension, so is yours.