First I will define three key terms, and then move on to
the value and criteria.
1.
Economic liberty:
Economic liberty means the right to private property, freedom of contract and a free market allocation of all goods and services, including external trade, and of all productive inputs.
-
NCPA Policy Report No. 196, Gerald W.
Scully August 1995
2.
General Welfare:
The
public's health, peace, morals, and safety.
-
Black’s
Law, Deluxe, unabridged, 1999, 7th edition.
3.
Agriculture:
The science, art, or practice of
cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock and in varying
degrees the preparation and marketing of the resulting products.
-
Merriam Webster’s dictionary online.
Value
premise:
I have chosen to uphold the value of
rights, and one of the important rights is economic liberty.
Value
premise definition:
The
definition of rights, from the American Heritage Dictionary, Facsimile First
Edition, is “In the United States, a tract of land; or a share or proportion
of property, as in a mine or manufactory.”
Value
Premise justification:
Rights are intrinsic to all human life, and the
protection of rights is the basis of free civilization.
Criteria:
To help us better understand the value
of rights, we shall use the criteria of private
property rights.
Criteria
Definition:
To define Private property rights, I will define one
terms, property rights.
Property
right:
A
right to specific property, whether tangible or intangible.
Black’s
Law, Deluxe, unabridged, 1999, 7th edition.
(if
needed) Private property:
Property
- protected from public appropriation - over which the owner has exclusive and
absolute rights.
-
Black’s
Law, Deluxe, unabridged, 1999, 7th edition.
Criteria
justification:
One of the man rights that should be protected is private
property rights.
Thesis:
The affirmative’s thesis is that the restriction of private property rights is
not justified for the general welfare.
Burdens:
The resolution obviously presents 3
responsibilities to the affirmative to prove
1.
First, the affirmative has to prove
that the restriction of economic liberty is beneficial, to the gneral welfare in
the field of agriculture.
2.
The affirmative has the responsibility
to prove that private property rights should be restricted.
3.
The affirmative has to uphold the whole
resolution.
The first responsibility is justified
because the first part of it is what the resolution says. And the second is
obvious because for the affirmative to have the ballot cast in their favor, they
have to demonstrate that their value is more important than mine.
Before we discuss anything else let’s look at an overview of economic liberty, or, in other words, why it is good.
1. One of the many aspects of private property rights is the economic liberty of the property owners to use their property as they wish.
2. One of the main points about economic liberty is that if you don’t have it, then liberty will not exist. As Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister of England, said, “There can be no liberty without economic liberty.” That is why it is important that we don’t restrict our economic liberty, because, as was stated before, you will not have your liberty
3.
Another way that economic liberty is important is that it stimulates
the economy and helps the poor and vulnerable,
Economic liberty has pragmatic value by
stimulating economy.
“Starved for Ideas: Misconception That Hinder the Battle against World
Hunger”, by Nicholas N. Eberstadt, is a visiting scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute and visiting at the Center for Population and Development
Studies at Harvard University, American Enterprise Institute, 1996
The underpinnings of economic liberty also have a pragmatic value: They
stimulate economic activity and enhance economic welfare. One may also make the
case that economic liberty is especially important to the poor, the vulnerable,
and the marginalized--those groups least capable of fending for themselves in an
economic and political system that is neither regular nor just.
4.
And third and last, liberty, once lost, can never be regained. As
Rousseau put it, “Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty,
but is never recovered if it is lost.” That is why liberty, which cannot exist without economic
liberty, needs to be preserved.
Now let’s look at how this applies to the field of agriculture. In the U.S.
Code, Title 7, which is the title for agriculture, Chapter 73, Section 4208, it
says. “This chapter does not authorize the Federal Government in any way to
regulate the use of private or non-Federal land, or in any way affect the
property rights of owners of such land.”
What this means is that the government
can not restrict the private property rights of the farmers.
Now, let’s go and look at the
affirmative’s case…