Resolved:
The United States federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security, and/or providing a basic income.
Articles on Economic Inequality
John Goodman grew up in Waco, TX and participated in high school debate competitions around the state of Texas. John was quite successful and won several statewide tournaments. He attended college at the University of Texas in Austin, where he became involved in campus politics and was elected vice president of the student body. All of this experience served him later in life when he became a TV debating partner of conservative polemicist William F. Buckley.
Brookings Analysis
Refutation of the Brookings analysis
Response to the Piketty/Saez Claim of Rising US Inequality.
This resource features a response to the Piketty/Saez Claim of Rising US Inequality.
Update on Saez and Zucman
If you are a high school debater focused on the topic of inequality, it shouldn’t take you long to discover The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay, by economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman.
Update on the Minimum Wage
“In the year 2023, in the richest country in the history of the world, nobody should be forced to work for starvation wages… If you work 40, 50 hours a week, you should not be living in poverty. It is time to raise the minimum wage to a living wage.”
Bernie Sanders, May 4, 2023
This is Sen. Sanders’ argument for raising the minimum wage from its current level of $7.25 an hour to $17.00.
Update on Desmond
Debaters should be aware of Matthew Desmond’s book Poverty, by America, which contains the claim that the United States is “the richest country on earth, with more poverty than any other advanced democracy.”