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Released: Filed Under: NCFCA Lincoln-Douglas
About "Quality of Life"
This case aims to ensure that the affirmative has a moral high ground in the debate. The rhetoric specifically questions the ethical validity of a negative position, while suggesting that affirmative better takes in to account the well-being of all people. The case focuses primarily on ideology as opposed to practicality.
The proposed value is quality of life. Other values that would work in the framework of this case would be human rights or general welfare. One possible alternate criterion is of ethical decision making. The case can be run as-is, or the debater can alter the case to better fit their style, with easy alternate values and criterions such as the ones stated above.
This case provides a more flexible structure and can be run with or without a criterion and with or without applications. However, the risk in doing so would be the potential to drop arguments. It will be important in rebuttals to address each aspect of the case that is introduced in the affirmative constructive. It would be better to choose not to run the non-essential arguments if the debater feels that they are likely to be short on time in the rebuttals.
The contentions present two different formats of contention writing. The first contention is split evenly into theoretical harm and an application of that harm. If a debater finds themselves consistently going overtime when running this case, they can choose to save the application for a rebuttal speech. The second contention is less separated and ought to be run together as one coherent thought. Note that the second contention does have evidence, but there is not an actual application presented.
The first thing that negative needs to do when arguing against this case is to prove that their side does not directly lead to abuse. Negative debaters should question the link between free trade and exploitation. There are many alternate theories that even suggest that free trade can be a good thing for struggling low-wage workers, particularly by examining the alternative to free trade work. Negative needs to prove that they benefit both the consumer and the workers who produce the goods in question.
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Alisa competed in speech and debate for six years in prepared speech events, impromptu speech events, and three forms of debate. Her favorite win was a parliamentary tournament where the first place prize was a dollar store container filled with m&ms.