My judgment
princessmerbear/badlydrawnjeff:
My vote goes to badlydrawnjeff. This was a tough one for me. badlydrawnjeff made a very good case for the long-term effectiveness of private accounts, but he simply shrugged off a very valid point about how the government would, by its very nature, probably turn the whole thing into a boondoggle. While princessmerbear did point out several effective ways to fix social security for at least the near future, her insistence that "private Social Security accounts take away personal responsibility for one’s own retirement and make them more reliant on the government" just left me confused, and when she didn't really step up to defend that, it sealed the deal for me. Overall an excellent job by both sides, though.
On a side note: I will need to either reschedule or forefeit my debate for this coming week. I am having some surgery on Tuesday and will be out of commission for a bit.
My vote goes to badlydrawnjeff. This was a tough one for me. badlydrawnjeff made a very good case for the long-term effectiveness of private accounts, but he simply shrugged off a very valid point about how the government would, by its very nature, probably turn the whole thing into a boondoggle. While princessmerbear did point out several effective ways to fix social security for at least the near future, her insistence that "private Social Security accounts take away personal responsibility for one’s own retirement and make them more reliant on the government" just left me confused, and when she didn't really step up to defend that, it sealed the deal for me. Overall an excellent job by both sides, though.
On a side note: I will need to either reschedule or forefeit my debate for this coming week. I am having some surgery on Tuesday and will be out of commission for a bit.