WHO 2018 Motion: 100% Inheritance tax
For the Winter Holidays Open (WHO) in Zagreb, two prelim motions and a final motion have been announced. • THW introduce a 100% inheritance tax • TH regrets the increasing focus on STEM education...
Category: The Economics of Freedom and Equity
High School Courses and Claims Should Be Debated
Brookings Institution’s Robert Litan offers A counterintuitive proposal for improving education and healing America: Debate-centered instruction (Brookings, September 27, 2018). Litan begins with a paragraph about current political and economic challenges then begins his...
Reforming Federal Means-Tested Benefits Programs
A proposed 2016-2017 resolution for the Stoa league was: The United States federal government should substantially reform one or more of its means-tested benefits programs. NSDA debaters had a similar resolution in 2009, calling for expanding...
“Private Charity Isn’t Enough”
When some people earn much more than others, should the taxing authority redistribute funds from high-income families to those with low incomes? A New York Times article “Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution Isn’t Over Yet” reports both...
What’s Less Equitable Than Slavery? How About Prisons?
An NCFCA LD resolution looked for clash between freedom and equity: “Resolved: In the realm of economics, freedom ought to be valued above equity.” The U.S. Supreme Court struggled with the clash between freedom...
Economic Freedom and Income Equality
Below is a four-minute overview by economist Robert Lawson of economic freedom and income inequality. For students looking for grounds on the negative, supporting equity, Dr. Lawson suggests income inequality in the U.S. is...
As Economic Freedom Rises, Wealth Increases, and Income Inequality Falls
“Less Economic Freedom Equals More Income Inequality,” by Ronald Bailey at Reason.com (February 20, 2015), reviews recent studies connecting economic freedom and income inequality: … according to a study comparing outcomes in all U.S....
Debating Income, Wealth, Self-Help, and Thrift Inequality
Articles on income and wealth inequality may be growing less and less equal. Some are fair and scholarly reviews of income and wealth data; others repeat the same flawed and misleading claims over and...
Parallel Societies: Trade and Enterprise Outside the Law
This movement should create a situation in which authorities will control empty stores, but not the market; the employment of workers, but not their livelihood; the official media, but not the circulation of information; printing plants, but...
Everyone Deserves a Chance to…Walk, Sing, and Drive With Everyone Else
We look for fairness and justice in a free society. Legal institutions shape economic behavior and guide development. What legal rules are appropriate? In a fair and equitable society “everyone deserves a chance to...