Is "which is more effective" even a useful question to ask?
Suppose it was found that the most effective way to deal with people's fears of terrorism is to ban Islam. Should we then ban Islam?
(Also, if you will do X when doing X is most effective, that creates incentives for people who want X to respond unusually strongly to doing X. You end up creating utility monsters.)
It is definitely a necessary question to ask. You need to have a prediction of how effective your solutions will be. You also need predictions of how practical they are, and it may be that something very effective is not practical -- e.g. banning Islam. You could make a list of things you should ask: how efficient, effective, sustainable, scalable, etc. But effective certainly has a place on the list.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.
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