PURPOSE:

In this Argument/Research essay (Essay 3), you will:

Enter the conversation that explores a specificcontroversy related to –

Equity, Equality, and the Pursuit of Prosperity (Ch. 19: “What’s Up with the American Dream?”)

READ THIS INTRO!! pp. 539-41

Inform your reader about the controversy which you have analyzed.
Trace the history and prospective consequences of alternative approaches to the controversy.
Establish and defend your own specific claim with respect to the controversy.

(“They Say / I Say—“Reading for the Conversation,” pp. 173-183)

RESEARCH PROPOSAL:

ByThursday, October 25, you will have derived atentative controversyfrom within your topic area for research and drafted atwo-pageResearch Proposal in the following format (Seegenerally, BUT DO NOT COPY THE SIMPLISTIC VERBIAGE,Guide, pp. 181-82).  You will write one to three sentences for each of the following outline headings:

 

DEBATABLE ISSUE: (There must be at least two sides that can be asserted and supported.)

 

CLEARLY STATED POSITION, CLAIM OR THESIS:(Where do you come down in this controversy? Assert the appropriate response or direction or consensus you advocate.)

 

THREE GROUNDS OR REASONS THAT SUPPORT YOUR ARGUMENT (Briefly explain each).

 

FRAME THE DISPUTE: (What is the larger conversation to which your thesis responds?)

 

POSSIBLE COUNTER-ARGUMENTS: (What would “they say” to what you say?)

 

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH SOURCES: (List Three main source candidates in proper MLA format).

 

These consist of credible secondary authorities that both support your argument and illustrate opposing views.

 

Document preliminary research with MLA format citations followed by brief descriptions of three credible,authored publications—books or scholarly journal articles or articles in our text—NO WEBSITES).

 

TOPIC AREASFOR THESIS/ARGUMENT RESEARCH

Select a proposal within the following controversial topic areas.  These broadly stated opposing views will get you started.  However,you must find a thesis within that larger conversation that narrows the focus of your specificargument/ research essay.

(see“Introduction”and the several articles at Ch. 19 [“What’s Up With the American Dream?: Equality, Equity, Pursuit of Prosperity”] at “They Say / I Say”539-638).

THESE ARE ONLY GENERAL TOPIC AREA SUGGESTIONS.  MANY SPECIFICCONTROVERSIES LIE WITHIN EACH TOPIC AREA.  YOU MUST DERIVE A NARROW AND SPECIFIC DEBAT1913ABLE ISSUE (see above) FROM WITHIN THE BROAD GENERAL TOPICS LISTED HERE.

Government’s Economic Role in Equity, Equality, and the Pursuit of Prosperity: Free Market Referee or “Nanny” Government.  Does government intervention in the economy properly protect the consumer and foster competitive economic activity?  Or, does such intervention disrupt market forces and create an “entitlement mentality” that saps innovation and fosters dependence on expensive regulation, subsidies, and social benefit programs?

Deficit Reduction/Deficit Spending.  Is government deficit reduction the key to future prosperity or a harbinger of national economic hardship?   Does deficit spending (via tax cuts; infrastructure investment; job retraining; health care investment) benefit or burden economic growth and prosperity?

“Jobless Recovery.”

Where did the jobs go, really? Overseas, obsolescence, or to automation?

 

How does the shift from industrial economy to an information economy challenge the ability enter the workforce and earn a living wage without substantial change in education and training required to participate in the new economy?

Minimum Wage.  Are calls for an increase in the minimum wage a “red herring?  Will an increase in the minimum wage stimulate the economy through increased worker affluence and productivity?  Or, will such an increase force cutbacks in the labor force and worsen unemployment?

Income Inequality.  (select one of the following for this category)

Does the increasing income disparity between the majority of Americans and the top percent of earners indicate economically and socially unhealthy conditions? Or, do to such financial rewards for the few at the top provide significant offsetting economic and social benefits?  Or, is this ultimately a false dichotomy?

 

Does income disparity inevitably cause the interests of the wealthy minority to dominate electoral politics? Or, do countervailing means through law-cost, alternative media exist to influence elections on a co-equal basis.

Is Access to Medical Care a Right? Is universal healthcarean idea whose time has come? Or, impossible dream?  Would a “single payer” healthcare system bea  more or less efficient health care delivery system?  More or less costly?  Does the current system constitute a competitive disadvantage to American businesses versus the majority of the industrialized economies?

Race: Economic, Social,Political, and Criminal Justice.  Did the legal reforms that ended segregation, offered fair housing, and purported to insure voting rights  result in equality of opportunity for African Americans to achieve the American Dream?  Or, do economic and social conditions, which range from government benefit dependency, to poor schools, to voter suppression,to exploitation of criminal justice system (drug enforcement; minor fine add-ons)), to latent prejudice in the work place, continue to limit economic and social access to the “Dream.”  FOCUS YOUR EXPLORATION OF EQUAL ACCESS TO THE “AMERICAN DREAM” ON ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

Education
Voting Rights (Suppression)
Housing
Criminal Justice

Immigration?  Do proposals to restrict immigration help protect American jobs and/or security? Or do restrictive policies 1) deny of human resources necessary for economic expansion; and/or 2) belie both founding principles and claim to embody “Liberty Enlightening the World.”  What practical considerations legitimately govern the compromise between “open borders,” on the one hand, and the “walls,” on the other.

YOU MAY ALSO EXPLORE AREAS OF YOUR OWN “AMERICAN DREAM” INTEREST IN CURRENT DISPUTED ISSUES RELATED TO:

The ENVIRONMENT: species extinction/habitat destruction, etc.
CLIMATE CHANGE: risks of famine; threat to coastal cities, etc.
TAX “REFORM”: legitimate economic stimulus or benefit for wealthy?

STUDENT LOANS/COST OF HIGHER EDUCATION, OR
A LOCAL ISSUE OF INTEREST

—PROVIDED THAT YOU CLEAR THE TOPIC WITH ME FIRST!

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