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Surveillance is not going to fix the issue. If we want to have fewer terrorist attacks, we have to prevent radicalisation by fixing the social issues that cause

Surveillance is not going to fix the issue. If we want to have fewer terrorist attacks, we have to prevent radicalisation by fixing the social issues that cause it. If we continue to do nothing, the problems will get worse, and surveillance will be futile. Fixing social issues is not easy. Masses of youths without education or perspective, racism, increasing segregation between the middle and lower classes can't be fixed with simple methods. Where do we start? I'd suggest starting with schools. Make sure that kids go to school. Send social workers to schools, that talk to students. Offer courses in the native language of migrant children, to make sure they are not left behind and drop out early. Make sure that every student has a grown up at school that they can talk to, that they relate to. Next, housing. Rents in most european cities are skyrocketing. I assume that this is caused by the current low interests rates, which lead to more and more people to use real estate as an investment. Low interest rates also make credit cheap, increasing the amount people can pay for housing, again increasing prices. This means that even the middle class is struggling to afford housing, and people working low income jobs have to live in very low quality housing, in poor areas. Fixing this is probably not easy, and probably requires a number of unpopular measures like rent control, or subsidised housing (for example you could require real estate developers to offer a percentage of affordable appartements when they apply for a permit to construct a new building). Also, jobs. I really don't know how to fix this. A starting point would probably be to require minimum wages even for contract employees, or better to outlaw the current practices of hiring people as "independent contractors" instead of proper employees. Anyway, these are just some suggestions. Note that all these measures are about helping people, rather than harassing them. Happy people don't become terrorists, and happy people don't need to be put under surveillance.

munin 11y ago
> I'd suggest starting with schools. Make sure that kids go to school. We already try to do this, they already fight this with violence (on us and on their own children).
- vixen99 11y ago
  You mean so that they go to engineering school? Terrorist organizations have long recognized that engineering departments are fertile ground for recruitment and have concentrated their efforts there. A 2005 report from British intelligence noted that Islamic extremists were frequenting college campuses, looking for 'inquisitive' students who might be susceptible to their message. In particular, the report noted, they targeted engineers."
vixen99 11y ago
I'm just wondering where the radical Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jewish, Baha'ist Shinto, and Atheist terrorists have got to? Don't they have social issues as well? Or are the media hiding their activities? The minimum wage disproportionately affects low-income minority populations. So if that's your goal, go for it! Employers understandably cream off the top (as they see it) applicants and the rest can go spend their lives unemployed. To really hurt them, why not increase the minimum wage yet again.
- jakobegger 11y ago
  We have plenty of radical christians. We just don't call them "radical christians", we call them "far right extremists". The media aren't hiding their activities. You might recall Anders Breivik or the "Döner" murders, but there are also regular smaller scale right wing terrorist attacks (eg someone setting fire to a refugee home a while back in Styria, Austria). We don't perceive this threat as dangerous, since the attacks are probably unconnected acts of individuals, and for some reason we don't see right wing networks spreading facist propaganda quite as threatening as islamic hate propaganda. Also, my comment concerning wage was not about raising minimum wages as much as ensuring that people are actually paid minimum wages. Most of the unemployed people I know aren't actually unemployed; they just have very irregular jobs (no contract, no insurance, irregular hours, etc)

munin 11y ago

> I'd suggest starting with schools. Make sure that kids go to school. We already try to do this, they already fight this with violence (on us and on their own children).

vixen99 11y ago
You mean so that they go to engineering school? Terrorist organizations have long recognized that engineering departments are fertile ground for recruitment and have concentrated their efforts there. A 2005 report from British intelligence noted that Islamic extremists were frequenting college campuses, looking for 'inquisitive' students who might be susceptible to their message. In particular, the report noted, they targeted engineers."

vixen99 11y ago

I'm just wondering where the radical Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jewish, Baha'ist Shinto, and Atheist terrorists have got to? Don't they have social issues as well? Or are the media hiding their activities? The minimum wage disproportionately affects low-income minority populations. So if that's your goal, go for it! Employers understandably cream off the top (as they see it) applicants and the rest can go spend their lives unemployed. To really hurt them, why not increase the minimum wage yet again.

jakobegger 11y ago
We have plenty of radical christians. We just don't call them "radical christians", we call them "far right extremists". The media aren't hiding their activities. You might recall Anders Breivik or the "Döner" murders, but there are also regular smaller scale right wing terrorist attacks (eg someone setting fire to a refugee home a while back in Styria, Austria). We don't perceive this threat as dangerous, since the attacks are probably unconnected acts of individuals, and for some reason we don't see right wing networks spreading facist propaganda quite as threatening as islamic hate propaganda. Also, my comment concerning wage was not about raising minimum wages as much as ensuring that people are actually paid minimum wages. Most of the unemployed people I know aren't actually unemployed; they just have very irregular jobs (no contract, no insurance, irregular hours, etc)