US, Europe must spend, reform to counter fallout from prolonged slump

THIS summer's unrelenting barrage of stories about innocent civilians losing their lives to the senseless violence of a few should provoke deep reflection by governments around the world.

The attacks in Germany, France and the United States are not entirely similar, but they do share common roots. Those roots are anchored to a prolonged period of economic stagnation, and they grow in the widening gaps in well-being within and across nations. To find a way out, governments in Europe and the United States must be willing to pursue fiscal measures and structural reforms to lift their economies out of the current slump by investing in education, infrastructure and reducing income gaps. They must also adopt sensible social policies that integrate disparate groups instead of building walls between them.

What leads a person to hurt innocents? The easy and popular answer lays blame on the Others. It is us versus them, them being extremist Muslims, or restless African Americans, or new immigrants or refugees. They are different, therefore they mean us harm. The Others explanation is convenient, but it is also wrong and dangerous, because many of the us-versus-them divisions are arbitrary. Why is a person dangerous because he or she looks different or believes in a different god, but not because he or she has a different personality type?