discover discussion debate - economic inequality - global

7/30/2019 Discover Discussion Debate - Economic Inequality - Global

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Discovery DiscussionDebateEconomic Inequality - Global

How big is too big? How wide is too wide? Economic

inequality is not a new problem. What is new is the

idea that is now affecting those countries who have

tried to balance social welfare with bits and pieces of

democracy, which is demanded by the populace.

Dr. Paul R. Friesen


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Discovery Discussion Debate

Design Dr. Paul R. Friesen 2013 Page 1 of17

Original Story copyright of original author

Graphic organizers from MS Office templates

Title:

For richer, for poorer

Growing inequality is one of the biggest social,

economic and political challenges of our time.

Discover Ideas(Outline)

Discuss the Story

(3 Question Levels)

Create Opinions

Economic I nequali ty


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Before you start

Look through the idea, front to back.

The ideas in red are just ideas. Students should add to these.

There is an outline page for Discovery.

There are graphic organizer pages for the Discussion and Debate sections.

The reason for the worksheets, at the end of the book, is to help you work

systematically through the material. Worksheets are helpers and can be a distraction

from the rhythm and sequence in your teaching. By putting them at the end they

become support pages versus places to stop, giving a smoother presentation.

DiscoveryIn the beginning of each story you will have a few questions to discover what you

know, or think you know about a story. The Title of the article/ story will be givenand you will be asked to discover the story by asking good questions.

In the second part ofdiscovery you will be asked to find words which you do not

know. Some of these may be highlighted already in bold. Definitions will follow to

help you discover what the writer is talking about.

Discovery will help youform a plan for the discussion and debate.

DiscussionDiscussion is not a debate, though it can quickly become one if there are strong

opposing ideas in the group.

Discussion can be a part of the discovery before you read the story. It may also come

after to discuss the ideas of the story. Sometimes a persons views may change after

reading the article, which is a good way to start a discussion.

Discussion is interaction without a lot of structure. Be careful not to confuse

discussion with argument.Debate is about argument. Discussion is about sharing

your views and interacting with others who want to expand or give a differing

viewpoint.DebateDebate is a structured idea. It means that only one person speaks in turn, and with a

specific point to address. It also has a time limit, so the speaker must be precise in

their argument. In a debate the key is to listen and be prepared to oppose the other

teams ideas. It takes research, a lot of work, and patience.

In the following story we want to begin with discovery ideas. What can you know

from a title, if you dont know about the topic?


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In discovery you will form ideas to create basics ideas for an outline. In discussion

you will ask questions to help you build an outline for your viewpoint. In debate you

will separate the outline into two sections, for and against. At each stage you will be

able to use what you have learned before, to expand on your ideas and understand

both sides of the issue.


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DiscoveryTitle: For richer, for poorer

Growing inequality is one of the biggest social, economic and political

challenges of our time.

What can you know from the title?

.______________________________________________.______________________________________________.______________________________________________.______________________________________________.______________________________________________

What do I know about this topic?

.__________________________________________.__________________________________________.__________________________________________.__________________________________________

What would make me depressed?

.__________________________________________.__________________________________________.__________________________________________.__________________________________________

What do you think is a good model to close the economic gap?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________


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.Now read the story..Create an outline of the story / paragraphs..There is a list of words on the side for you to find..After you have found the words, look in the definitions, which

follow the story.

.Discoverthe words you dont know.Economic I nequali ty

For richer, for poorer

http://www.economist.com/node/21564414

Growing inequality is one of the biggest social, economic and political challenges of our time.

But it is not inevitable, says Zanny Minton Beddoes Oct 13th 2012

In 1889, at the height of Americas first Gilded

Age, George Vanderbilt II, grandson of the

original railway magnate, set out to build a

country estate, in the Blue Ridge mountains

of North Carolina. He hired the most

prominent architect of the time, toured the

chateaux of the Loire for inspiration, laid a railway to bring in limestone fromIndiana and employed more than 1,000 labourers. Six years later Biltmore

was completed. With 250 rooms spread over 175,000 square feet (16,000

square metres), the mansion was 300 times bigger than the average dwelling

of its day. It had central heating, an indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley,

lifts and an intercom system at a time when most American homes had

neither electricity nor indoor plumbing.

A bit over a century later, Americas second Gilded Age has nothing quite like

the Vanderbilt extravaganza. Bill Gatess home, near Seattle, is full of high-

tech gizmos, but, at 66,000 square feet, it is a mere 30 times bigger than the

average modern American home. Disparities in wealth are less visible in

Americans everyday lives today than they were a century ago. Even poor

people have televisions, air conditioners and cars. But appearances deceive.

The democratisation of living standards has masked a dramatic concentration

of incomes over the past 30 years, on a scale that matches, or even exceeds,

the first Gilded Age. Including capital gains, the share of national income

going to the richest 1% of Americans has doubled since 1980, from 10% to

20%, roughly where it was a century ago. Even more striking, the share going

to the top 0.01%some 16,000 families with an average income of $24m


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has quadrupled, from just over 1% to almost 5%. That is a bigger slice of the

national pie than the top 0.01% received 100 years ago.

This is an extraordinary development, and it is not confined to America. Many

countries, including Britain, Canada, China, India and even egalitarianSweden, have seen a rise in the share of national income taken by the top 1%.

The numbers of the ultra-wealthy have soared around the globe.

The concentration of wealth at the very top is part of a much broader rise in

disparities all along the income distribution. The best-known way of measuring

inequality is the Gini coefficient, named after an Italian statistician called

Corrado Gini. It aggregates the gaps between peoples incomes into a single

measure. If everyone in a group has the same income, the Gini coefficient is 0;

if all income goes to one person, it is 1.

The level of inequality differs

widely around the world.

Emerging economies are more

unequal than rich ones.

Scandinavian countries have

the smallest income disparities,

with a Gini coefficient for

disposable income of around 0.25. At the other end of the spectrum the

worlds most unequal, such as South Africa, register Ginis of around 0.6.

Income gaps have also changed to varying degrees. Americas Gini for

disposable income is up by almost 30% since 1980, to 0.39. Swedens is up

by a quarter, to 0.24. Chinas has risen by around 50% to 0.42 (and by some

measures to 0.48). The biggest exception to the general upward trend is Latin

America, long the worlds most unequal continent, where Gini coefficients

have fallen sharply over the past ten years. But the majority of the people on

the planet live in countries where income disparities are bigger than they were

a generation ago.

That does not mean the world as a whole has become more unequal. Global

inequalitythe income gaps between all people on the planethas begun to

fall as poorer countries catch up with richer ones. Two French economists,

Franois Bourguignon and Christian Morrisson, have calculated a global Gini

that measures the scale of income disparities among everyone in the world.

Their index shows that global inequality rose in the 19th and 20th centuries

because richer economies, on average, grew faster than poorer ones.

Recently that pattern has reversed and global inequality has started to falleven as inequality within many countries has risen. By that measure, the


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planet as a whole is becoming a fairer place.

But in a world of nation states it is inequality

within countries that has political salience,

and this special report will focus on that.

From U to N

The widening of income gaps is a reversal of the pattern in much of the 20th

century, when inequality narrowed in many countries. That narrowing seemed

so inevitable that Simon Kuznets, a Belarusian-born Harvard economist, in

1955 famously described the relationship between inequality and prosperity

as an upside-down U. According to the Kuznets curve, inequality rises in the

early stages of industrialisation as people leave the land, become more

productive and earn more in factories. Once industrialisation is complete and

better-educated citizens demand redistribution from their government, itdeclines again.

Until 1980 this prediction appeared to have been vindicated. But the past 30

years have put paid to the Kuznets curve, at least in advanced economies.

These days the inverted U has turned into something closer to an

italicised N, with the final stroke pointing menacingly upwards.

That changed after the crash. The bank rescues shone a spotlight on the

unfairness of a system in which affluent bankers were bailed out whereas

ordinary folk lost their houses and jobs. And in todays sluggisheconomies,

more inequality often means that people at the bottom and even in the middle

of the income distribution are falling behind not just in relative but also in

absolute terms.

Even in more buoyant emerging economies, inequality is a growing worry.

Indias government is under fire for the lack of inclusive growth and for

cronyism that has enriched insiders, evident from dubious mobile-phone-

spectrum auctions and dodgy mining deals. Chinas leaders fear that growing

disparities will cause social unrest. Wen Jiabao, the outgoing prime minister,has long pushed for a harmonious society.

Many economists, too, now worry that widening income disparities may have

damaging side-effects. In theory, inequality has an ambiguous relationship

with prosperity. It can boost growth, because richer folk save and invest more

and because people work harder in response to incentives. But big income

gaps can also be inefficient, because they can bar talented poor people from

access to education or feed resentment that results in growth-destroying

populist policies.


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The mainstream consensus has long been that a growing economy raises all

boats, to much better effect than incentive-dulling redistribution. Robert Lucas,

a Nobel prize-winner, epitomised the orthodoxy when he wrote in 2003 that

of the tendencies that are harmful to sound economics, the most seductive

andpoisonous is to focus on questions of distribution.

The widening gaps within many countries are

beginning to worry even the plutocrats. A

survey for the World Economic Forum meeting

at Davos pointed to inequality as the most

pressing problem of the coming decade

(alongside fiscal imbalances). In all sections of

society, there is growing agreement that the world is becoming more unequal,

and that todays disparities and their likely trajectory are dangerous.

Not so fast

That is too simplistic. Inequality, as measured by Gini coefficients, is simply

a snapshot of outcomes. It does not tell you why those gaps have opened up

or what the trend is over time. And like any snapshot, the picture can be

misleading. Income gaps can arise for good reasons (such as when people

are rewarded for productive work) or for bad ones (if poorer children do not

get the same opportunities as richer ones). Equally, inequality of outcomes

might be acceptable if the gaps are between young people and older folk, so

may shrink over time. But in societies without this sort of mobility a high Gini is

troubling.

Some societies are more concerned about equality of opportunity,

others more about equality of outcome. Europeans tend to be more

egalitarian, believing that in a fair society there should be no big income gaps.

Americans and Chinese put more emphasis on equality of opportunity.

Provided people can move up the social ladder, they believe a society with

wide income gaps can still be fair. Whatever peoples preferences, static

measures of income gaps tell only half the story.

Despite the lack of nuance, todays debate over inequality will have important

consequences. The unstable history of Latin America, long the continent with

the biggest income gaps, suggests that countries run by entrenched wealthy

elites do not do very well. Yet the 20th centurys focus on redistribution

brought its own problems. Too often high-tax welfare states turned out to be

inefficient and unsustainable. Government cures for inequality have

sometimes been worse than the disease itself.


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Vocabulary Check

Find the colored words. Write a definition you can discover from the story if

possible.

__________

1. ______________________________________________________

__________

2. ______________________________________________________

__________

3. ______________________________________________________

__________

4. ______________________________________________________

__________

5. ______________________________________________________

__________6. ______________________________________________________

__________

7. ______________________________________________________

__________

8. ______________________________________________________

__________

9. ______________________________________________________

___________

10. ______________________________________________________

__________

11. ________________________________________________________________

12. ______________________________________________________

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13. ______________________________________________________

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14. ______________________________________________________

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15. ______________________________________________________

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16. ______________________________________________________

__________17. ______________________________________________________

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18. ______________________________________________________

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19. ______________________________________________________

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20. ______________________________________________________

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21. ______________________________________________________

__________

22. ______________________________________________________


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DiscoveryWhat do I know about this topic?

List at least four (4) different ideas you have found in this story..__________________________________________.__________________________________________.__________________________________________.__________________________________________

Use them when you make your outline.

Discussion

Level I

.Who is Gini?.Why does the U become an N?.Why is the income gap a problem in China?

Level II

.Why does moving to the city create problems?.Can we redistribute money globally so all nations are equal? Explain.

.How much money is too much?.Why do the rich not want to help more? Explain.

Level III

.If we raise the minimum wage, will the economic gap lessen? Explain..Should we limit profits to help with the global economic disparity?.What is a good solution to controlling the growth of the super-rich?

You now have everything you need to fill out your outline.

Look at your answers, underDiscussion, andfill it outto reflect thenew ideas.

These new ideas will help you form your debate ideas better.


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In debate you will have a statement not a question. You have to react to the statement

with facts, not opinions.

Discussions are based a lot on opinions and answer questions. This is wherethese two ideas, though similar, are different.

Debate is about facts and statements.

When you make a statement, from a story,you must consider what the coreissue is. If you have made a good outline, you will have this already

discovered.

This story is from economics. The core issue could be;

social economic

political culture

In todays world the topics could range from;

social responsibility government controlpeople power democracy

the super-rich economics

These are all good argument that you would want to research for your argument, or

write in your essay. Build the argument starting from Why? Once you have

determined the Why? you can find facts to support your idea.

Countries with too many super-rich have a wider economic gap. Therefore thegovernment should limit the number rich people.

Politicians should be paid at the lowest common wage to help distribute thetax income more equally.

Money fuels inequality. The best solution is to give everything equal value.

Before you startchoose one of the above statements to focus on. Choose afor or against position.

Research to find FACTS for your position.

List the facts.


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Write out your argument in a long paragraph format. Include the oppositeposition in your writing.

You need to write out both sides so you can understand theother sides argument.

Discovery OutlineMain topic ________________________

Find one(1) key ideain each paragraph. (3-5 words)

Paragraph 1 ______________________________

Paragraph 2 ______________________________Paragraph 3 ______________________________

Paragraph 4 ______________________________

Paragraph 5 ______________________________

Write two thingsabout the main paragraph idea.

Paragraph 1 ______________________________

A. ______________________________

B. ______________________________

Paragraph 2 ______________________________

A. ______________________________

B. ______________________________

Paragraph 3 ______________________________

A. ______________________________

B. ______________________________

Paragraph 4 ______________________________

A. ______________________________

B. ______________________________

Paragraph 5 ______________________________

A. ______________________________

B. ______________________________

In the introduction you use the 5 paragraph ideas to communicate the order ofyour argument/ essay.

In the conclusion you repeat what you have said about the points of eachparagraph.


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Graphic Organization ~

Main topic = 5 Paragraph Topics

Main

topic

paragraph 1

________________________________________________

paragraph 2________________________________________________

paragraph 3

________________________________________________

paragraph 4________________________________________________

paragraph 5

________________________________________________


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graphic ~ choose one statement from the list

above.

Write it here _____________________________________________

________________________________________________________

To make your argument you should understand that they are connected.

In the next two charts (1) list your argument facts and ideas, (2) show how your

argument connects to both the center point and the other points.

FactsFor Against

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Add more if needed


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graphic ~ choose one statement from the list

above.

Now start the .

As a team choose which points they will speak about.

Each person will listen for the opposite point and create a new

response to what the other person has said.

A: point 1

B: responds to the point and give a new point.

C: responds to B and give a new point.

After all persons have spoken each person can respond to any point given by the

opposite team, or add more points from their team which will need responding to

from the opposite team.

If this -- then

If this -- then

If this -- then

If this -- then

If this -- then

Write your statement position here.________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

______________________________


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Dear Teacher/ Student,

After you have finished this please look for more in this series to challenge yourself.

This is only part of a curriculum. It starts with Dr. Roys Everything Grammar.

Dr. Roys Everything Grammar Volumes I and II will develop the skills of story andessay writing, while at the same time building a foundation in grammar. The

repetition of grammar, combined with reason and speaking, culminating in a story or

essay will prepare students for this series.

Going beyond this book is a book to expand the outlines into essays. Good essays are

able to build and defend an argument. Building a structure for debate will springboard

off this skill set.

Dr. Paul R. Friesen

discover discussion debate - economic inequality - global

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