Making sure everyone has something to lose means making sure everyone has fulfilling lifes they'd rather not jepordize with hostility.

The us and them mentality being used to "combat" terrorism is so harmful because it puts people in a position where they have nothing to lose - they're already being discrimminated against etc.

I agree that a few assholes can ruin things for everyone but the reason they can is because they can ruin the trust people have in each other thereby leading to a situation like I described above. The solution is therefore counterintuitive (since they exploit intuition).

This was actually successfully done. I'm having trouble finding the article, but basically a terrorist group (perhaps in Palestine) had trained some men specifically to be some of their most dedicated and zealous terrorists. However, the situation changed and they found that they no longer needed these zealots and had no idea what to do with them. So they held a mixer where the terrorists got to meet potential brides, and basically said that if they promised to live a normal life, they'd receive some financial compensation to get started on that normal life. All of the trainees ended up getting married and having families, and lost all desire to commit terrorist acts.

> make sure that people in general have lots to lose especially those on the fringes of society

What do you mean by this? It sounds a bit ominous, if you'll pardon me.

There's a reason whether someone has life insurance is used as a signal when determining if they're a terrorist.