Activity 4 ARCS p. 153

Use Aristotle's common topics to analyze some issue that you want to understand better. Ask each of the questions listed in this chapter under conjecture, degree, and possibility. Take your time, and write down all of the answers that come to you. Remember, the point of heuristic is to help you find all of the available arguments. If you are thorough, systematic use of the topics should turn up more arguments than you need.

One issue that I want to understand better is the future of the economy. This is an issue that not only effects myself, but my family, friends, and nearly every American I have not personally met (which is a lot). My focus will be on Obama's plan.

Conjecture:

• What exists is a heavy drop in the stock market after banking firms pressured people to pay money they did not have. This caused many people's homes, stocks, and retirement plans to be lost or may be lost in the future. Now the banking companies are asking for $700 billion dollars from the government that will trickle down to every American tax payer. This is the largest bail-out since the depression of the 1930's.
• What doesn't exists is plans to withhold that money and let the American's practice of a free-market economy save people from the current crisis.
• In the past, during the 1930's, unemployment was higher then it has ever been thanks to a surge of WWI soldier's employers denying them their old jobs and the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act enacted in 1930. The government responded with $140 billion dollars to buy failing businesses. What brought America out of its depression was the transition to a war-economy during WWII.
• The future is unclear at this point because this crisis and bail-out plan are still in its infant stages. It took three years after the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act for unemployment to reach its high of 25%. It is especially hard to predict how the economy will do now that we are at the end of an election season. We see two opinions; Obama and McCain.

Degree:

• These two political party representatives need their plans to be judged by goodness, justness, honor, and expediency. Obama wants to provide a $1,000 a year permanent tax relief and giving $500 tax credit for working families. This will increase government spending, but the focus will be with the middle to lower class and not the banking companies that caused the current crisis. Obama has also proposed similar flat taxes so Americans can quickly understand what is owed and why. Public services across America, such as hospital, police, and fire will be expediently divide $25 billion dollars to stay open.
• Who Benefits is the lower and middle class families who make less than six figures a year. Obama's plan will keep American's working and not spending needless hours on tax forms. That time is better spent with one's family.
• The time line Obama hopes to reach his goals in his first year in office, during tax time. I do respect the fact that we are STILL fighting a war and Obama wants our troops home and safe too. These two dominate issues in America may conflict with each other, but Obama understands this. He proposed a steady solution of troop withdrawal over time. This will bring our fighting men and women home and give Obama time to handle the current economy problem.

Possibility:

• What is possible is giving Americans tax relief without pushing the stock market further down into a hole. We can't so willing turn over $700 billion dollars to the companies causing homelessness and finance woos. It is possible that the free market will create mutual trust between companies and investors to bring faith back to the economy, including the banks.
• What is impossible is trusting the current greedy banking firms various CEOs to stop being greedy. Even if the government's money creates strong regulations, they are still leaving propriety spending of the $700 billion up to the CEOs. If these CEOs are anything like me, then they will cover their own losses before anyone else's.