Sometimes you have to love the logic that comes from the give-and-take of a debate format. Especially when you've got high schoolers in the mix. I got to hear this basic exchange yesterday in a round debating whether or not we ought to bail out the auto industry:
Neg: If we don't bail out the auto industry we will lose millions of jobs and unemployment will rise to 10% and that will throw us into a depression.
Aff: Sorry, but 10% does not a depression make. During the Great Depression unemployment was at 25%.
Neg: The Great Depression was one of the biggest depressions we've ever had. We're not talking about a depression of that size. 10% unemployment would put us into a simple depression.
Aff: There is no such thing as a simple depression. Economics is very complex, there is nothing simple about it.
Neg won that round. This wasn't the sole argument that did it for them, but most of aff's arguments fell into the same sort of trap at the end.
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