Growing up in the sticks I'd heard so much about it and had hilariously low expectations when I went out for an internship, but then I found out that it's a fucking amazing place. I swear there's got to be a decades long campaign to make outsiders think the place is terrible in an attempt to keep density down. Honestly, I'd be perfectly happy if so. Don't want my paragliding ocean bluffs overpacked with people. :P
I can see why some people could see a 450% increase in the likelihood of being murdered as a comparitive warzone.
But isn't that true of most of the U.S. We have more crime everywhere than most the rest of the world. And especially violent crime.
Australia 692 violent assaults per 100k [1]
California 430 assaults per 100k [2]
So, you'd also be trading more of a rare really bad thing for less of a relatively common bad thing.
1 - https://www.osac.gov/Country/Australia/Content/Detail/Report....
2 - https://www.ppic.org/publication/crime-trends-in-california/....
The web app doesn't seem to support direct linking to query results, but it's in here: http://crimetool.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/bocsar/ under Assault - Non Domestic.
At the end of the day though - people tend to consider being murdered a significantly more disruptive event than getting punched in the face.
California has a much larger population and twice the economic output of Australia. It seems much more reasonable to compare Australia to one state than to compare it to the entire US.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the depths of the Philippines, and never saw anything that bad... and that was during a single stroll to the hotel!
It honestly feels like a scaled down version of the slums you see in South Africa butting right up against typical suburban homes.
No idea how universal these things are in all of California, but nearly every Australian that visits LA and a few other areas come back with stories about hearing gunshots from the hotel, accidentally ending up in a seedy/crime ridden part of town or something similar. This is very alien to us and more in line with what we'd see on the news from Somalia. Statistics like homicide rates and gun crime show there's at least some truth it.
We're also a fairly egalitarian society, so much more likely to judge other nations on how well off the poorest are and not the richest.
Do you think it's possible they're mistaking gunfire with fireworks? There are plenty of fireworks here.
I think the fact that those areas exist comes as a shock to Australians, who are used to gun control and probably never heard let alone seen a single gun in their lifetime