This year (2017), as a project employee of the NS, I stood at the gates when they were closed for 50%, 75% or completely. My job was to inform people about the closing of the gates and how to get through the gates, but 8 out of 10 the question was what time does my train leave. This was a nice experience talking to travelers with NS and tourists and answering their questions. Still, I was amazed by the gates.
The most common reason for placing and closing the gates is to increase safety at the stations inside the gates and in the trains. Despite this reason, I wonder if this is the way to make our society safer.
Isn't it a social problem that isn't tackled with this measure, because scums continue to exist and commit vandalism and crimes. Only now it has been moved from the closed station to other places in society. This is not tackling the problem, but fighting the symptoms, something like how medicine works.
Couldn't the money spent for closing the stations with gates and cameras be better spent on re-educating society? So tackle the problem and not the symptoms. In Germany the stations are open and relatively safe in my experience. Haven't it just become a control freak country where It tries to control the problem with shutdowns and make it accessible only to those who can afford it. In addition, It hangs cameras everywhere to ensure that the control measures are not destroyed.
To name a few examples:
The barter economy
The giving economy
And the economy in which value is determined by the recipient afterwards.
These economies function well as there is trust between the parties that trade with each other. Shouldn't it extend this trust further across our society instead of taking control measures? Take away the aggression from the perpetrator by reacting with compassion?
I am curious where society is going with two contradictory movements that are now running past each other:
The control mechanism of government
And the trust society that increasingly penetrates from the niche into the real society.
I'm for the last one with the help of the first one!