4 ms·

Costa Rica (a country my wife and I are seriously looking at moving to in retirement and planning to spend a couple of months there every year starting next yea

Costa Rica (a country my wife and I are seriously looking at moving to in retirement and planning to spend a couple of months there every year starting next year) famously doesn’t have a military to prevent military coups and to put more money into their excellent universal health care system among other things.

rayiner 1y ago
Costa Rica's homicide rate is 17 per 100,000 people. You probably won't notice it living in whatever expatriate enclave you and your wife are looking at, but that's a crushing burden on the average person in the country.
- stubish 1y ago
  Is this just an anecdote, or are you claiming that having a military would somehow reduce the homicide rate? How would this work in practice?
  - netsharc 1y ago
    Probably by having the panopticon-effect. The same way a surveillance camera in every room would also reduce bad behavior...
    - AstralStorm 1y ago
      Only way to achieve that is if people are afraid of these forces and perceive them as effective at policing. If they're not, nothing will happen.
      - scarface_74 1y ago
        And considering that the US has the highest murder rate among first world countries, highest incarceration rate and spends the most on the military. Obvious the US is doing something wrong.
- fakedang 1y ago
  Costa Rica is also turning into the new haven for the drug cartels to run ops, after they were evicted from El Salvador, and the lack of a military certainly does not help here.
  - scarface_74 1y ago
    And the military stops drugs in the US?
    - fakedang 1y ago
      Let's not look at overmilitarized countries like the US. And yes, for most countries in Latin America such as Mexico and Colombia, direct conflict with cartels is handled by the military, while internally handled by the police and justice branches.
- werrett 1y ago
  While appalling I don’t think you would find it 'crushing', even ignoring the jibe about expat conclaves. Costa Rica’s 17 in 100k is ~2.5 times bigger than the US’ 6 in 100k people killed by homicide. Thanks to gun crime, the US’ homicide rates are at least 7x the rest of the first world, anglophone, countries where rates are sub 1 in 100k. By that measure it is 2-3x more confronting, to move from the United Kingdom to the States than it is from the US to Costa Rica.
  - rayiner 1y ago
    > Thanks to gun crime, the US’ homicide rates are at least 7x the rest of the first world, anglophone, countries where rates are sub 1 in 100k. Except it's not "thanks to gun crime." Some of the states with the lowest homicide rates, like Idaho and Utah, have the most guns.
    - acdha 1y ago
      You’re conflating two different things. The number of guns in absolute terms doesn’t matter as much as availability to people who are inclined to commit crimes: a collector / prepper going from 10 to 11 guns affects the total count but doesn’t impact the crime stats the way an angry teenager going from 0 to 1 gun does. This is why it’s misleading to talk about state-level stats without accounting for density: Idaho has a lower crime rate because it is mostly rural and has a single large city, which isn’t that big. Crime is a function of population, not land.
      - potato3732842 1y ago
        >This is why it’s misleading to talk about state-level stats without accounting for density: Idaho has a lower crime rate because it is mostly rural and has a single large city, which isn’t that big. Crime is a function of population, not land. Don't you mean function of density or was that a slight of hand rather than a typo? Like compare Wyoming to 1/16 of NYC or 16x Wyoming and compare it to all of NYC. They're about equal in population but the rates per capita are per capita so they're unchanged whether you multiply one or divide the other.
- Avshalom 1y ago
  Meh, that's not really any worse than Albuquerque and I haven't been murdered once here.
- scarface_74 1y ago
  The city I spent all of my childhood and went to college in had a murder rate in the 20s per 100,000 the year I graduated. It wasn’t a large city. Retirement is a long way away. But next year, we have an Airbnb in Escazu, a suburb of San Jose that is safe. It’s a high rise condo 2/2 with a gym and a pool. The murder rate in “Atlanta” is also still around 20 per 100,000 and I lived in various suburbs of metro Atlanta until 2022 and was never in fear of my life going into the city. But I also lived in a suburban enclaves there. For what it’s worth, I’m not going to be one of these ignorant entitled Americans who refuse to learn Spanish. I am close to A2 level Spanish now and should be there by the time we go next year. I can hold simple conversations.

rayiner 1y ago

Costa Rica's homicide rate is 17 per 100,000 people. You probably won't notice it living in whatever expatriate enclave you and your wife are looking at, but that's a crushing burden on the average person in the country.

stubish 1y ago
Is this just an anecdote, or are you claiming that having a military would somehow reduce the homicide rate? How would this work in practice?
- netsharc 1y ago
  Probably by having the panopticon-effect. The same way a surveillance camera in every room would also reduce bad behavior...
  - AstralStorm 1y ago
    Only way to achieve that is if people are afraid of these forces and perceive them as effective at policing. If they're not, nothing will happen.
    - scarface_74 1y ago
      And considering that the US has the highest murder rate among first world countries, highest incarceration rate and spends the most on the military. Obvious the US is doing something wrong.
fakedang 1y ago
Costa Rica is also turning into the new haven for the drug cartels to run ops, after they were evicted from El Salvador, and the lack of a military certainly does not help here.
- scarface_74 1y ago
  And the military stops drugs in the US?
  - fakedang 1y ago
    Let's not look at overmilitarized countries like the US. And yes, for most countries in Latin America such as Mexico and Colombia, direct conflict with cartels is handled by the military, while internally handled by the police and justice branches.
werrett 1y ago
While appalling I don’t think you would find it 'crushing', even ignoring the jibe about expat conclaves. Costa Rica’s 17 in 100k is ~2.5 times bigger than the US’ 6 in 100k people killed by homicide. Thanks to gun crime, the US’ homicide rates are at least 7x the rest of the first world, anglophone, countries where rates are sub 1 in 100k. By that measure it is 2-3x more confronting, to move from the United Kingdom to the States than it is from the US to Costa Rica.
- rayiner 1y ago
  > Thanks to gun crime, the US’ homicide rates are at least 7x the rest of the first world, anglophone, countries where rates are sub 1 in 100k. Except it's not "thanks to gun crime." Some of the states with the lowest homicide rates, like Idaho and Utah, have the most guns.
  - acdha 1y ago
    You’re conflating two different things. The number of guns in absolute terms doesn’t matter as much as availability to people who are inclined to commit crimes: a collector / prepper going from 10 to 11 guns affects the total count but doesn’t impact the crime stats the way an angry teenager going from 0 to 1 gun does. This is why it’s misleading to talk about state-level stats without accounting for density: Idaho has a lower crime rate because it is mostly rural and has a single large city, which isn’t that big. Crime is a function of population, not land.
    - potato3732842 1y ago
      >This is why it’s misleading to talk about state-level stats without accounting for density: Idaho has a lower crime rate because it is mostly rural and has a single large city, which isn’t that big. Crime is a function of population, not land. Don't you mean function of density or was that a slight of hand rather than a typo? Like compare Wyoming to 1/16 of NYC or 16x Wyoming and compare it to all of NYC. They're about equal in population but the rates per capita are per capita so they're unchanged whether you multiply one or divide the other.
Avshalom 1y ago
Meh, that's not really any worse than Albuquerque and I haven't been murdered once here.
scarface_74 1y ago
The city I spent all of my childhood and went to college in had a murder rate in the 20s per 100,000 the year I graduated. It wasn’t a large city. Retirement is a long way away. But next year, we have an Airbnb in Escazu, a suburb of San Jose that is safe. It’s a high rise condo 2/2 with a gym and a pool. The murder rate in “Atlanta” is also still around 20 per 100,000 and I lived in various suburbs of metro Atlanta until 2022 and was never in fear of my life going into the city. But I also lived in a suburban enclaves there. For what it’s worth, I’m not going to be one of these ignorant entitled Americans who refuse to learn Spanish. I am close to A2 level Spanish now and should be there by the time we go next year. I can hold simple conversations.