By the time we get to this point, trying to "fix" it or "understand it" or whatever tends to feel pretty hopeless.

I saw a blurb once that for every dollar spent on taking care of preschoolers, you save five dollars down the road on prison costs and similar. So the antidote seems to me to be to try to foster civilization -- feed people better, family-friendly policies, pro-education policies, etc.

A lot of issues that should be resolved before it's this ugly don't get resolved at the "stitch in time" level and then it's a slippery slope and here we are. But suggesting you do the small, thoughtful thing -- people see that as unrelated. It's not heroic enough. They want to take on something big and defeat it.

And here we are and here we stay.