They're the only choices that have any chance of happening. I absolutely agree we should solve not crime specifically, but the terrible lifelong personal suffering that causes it. For every violent criminal, there must be a lot of harmless damaged people. We need to fix parenting to prevent neglect, abuse and incompetence. But how can you do that without being even more authoritarian than surveillance?
Like I said, we've lost the imagination to think about investing in society. It's gonna cost money, time and effort, none of which people want to spend these days. You gotta stop treating people like criminals. You gotta invest in education, healthcare, addiction programs. You gotta hire people--sociologists, psychologists, educators, and yes some policemen. You gotta set up government departments that are dedicated to studying people's well being and tracking long term trends. You gotta have effective social programs. You gotta stop the propaganda lies that socialism is the same is communism or is some kind of authoritarian nightmare--it isn't. Socialism is high taxes to pay for effective government services run by well-paid professional bureaucrats who know what the heck they are doing. Period. And for fuck's sake, you gotta stop spending trillions on pointless wars, hyper-advanced killing technology, and tax cuts for the rich. In short, do everything the opposite of what America is doing.
