This skeleton is a Day of the Dead version of Auguste Rodin's sculpture "The Thinker", made sometime around the turn of the last century.
According to wikipedia: Rodin based his theme on The Divine Comedy of Dante and entitled the portal The Gates of Hell. Each of the statues in the piece represented one of the main characters in the epic poem. The Thinker was originally meant to depict Dante in front of the Gates of Hell, pondering his great poem. (In the final sculpture, a miniature of the statue sits atop the gates, pondering the hellish fate of those beneath him.)
The Skeleton Thinker is indeed facing the gates of Hell -- these unbelievable bars, police forces of all sorts, the deaths occurring daily, the dehumanization meted out -- the locals' response is, "we're used to it." Off to live within the Beast -- the Hell with repression, alienation, and hunger -- money can indeed be a buffer.
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