SCHOOL DEBATE PLEASE HELP!Cars are a curse!. School debate please helpcars are a curse hello we have a college school debate car

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neville64, Nov 15, 2:41am
SCHOOL DEBATE PLEASE HELP!Cars are a curse!
Hello we have a college school debate Cars are a curse we are the affirmative (agreeing)If you have any comments or opinion please post it!Thank you :) Debate Friday 18 November
air.rowcj, Nov 15, 3:07am
Cars are are not a curse when you can not look after your horse. Before cars there were no roads ooops
No cars no motoring deaths and injuries caused by speeding ambulances
Steam trains anyone
Suggest humour and ridicule only to win the adjudicators and audience other wise you are on a hiding to nothing
m16d, Nov 15, 10:59am
The only cars that are a curse are the ones kids drive to school.
Get the bus.
fryan1962, Nov 15, 12:08pm
cars such as leyland p76 and volvos are a curse ppl laugh at you
r15, Nov 15, 12:17pm
A real curse unless you feel like walking everywhere.
electromic, Nov 15, 2:51pm
Point 1: History. Humans have lived on earth for xxxx years and have only had cars for xxxx years. (fill in the xxxx)
Point 2. the $ cost of having a car. Buying, reg, wof, service, tyres,etc
Point 3. Cost to the environment. Pollution, roads (loss of land), dumping cars, etc.
Point 4. Cost to society. Road deaths, hospital care($$$), boy racers, etc.
Bonus point: cars are addictive. Compare to drugs, gambling, etc.
Research some facts/figures.
Good luck!
rallec, Nov 15, 3:48pm
Given you're affirmative, the main thing you want to do is define the moot very carefully.Specifically, if you define a curse as "A cause of great harm of misfortune" (a definition provided by the Merriam-Webster dictionary) then you can really stuff up the negating team line.Then you can simply focus on the great harm and misfortune caused by cars - road deaths, repair/running costs, pollution, even their use to break the law.It stops it being comparative - don't let the negating say the benefits outweigh the harm, because your definition of the moot simply states to be a curse it must be a cause of great harm - and forces the negating team to try and flip their argument to say that those road deaths etc. aren't great harm or misfortune.You run the risk of being penalised for taking such a constricted view of the moot, but given it doesn't seem to be a very fairly weighted topic if you really stick to your guns you should be fine.
rallec, Nov 15, 3:50pm
Also, on another note you might be able to get tm to remove your 1 negative feedback because the member who gave it has now been disabled.
richardmayes, Nov 15, 4:00pm
Point 1: Financial burden to the owner

Cars are a depreciating asset, with maintenance costs that become unpredictable and approach the value of the car as it gets older.
Many of them are bought on finance using money borrowed at much higher than bank interest rates. Fuel costs grow exponentially and this trend will continue.

Point 2:Cost to the world:

Huge balance of payments deficit between oil consuming and producing states. The main driver of many wars in recent decades.

Point 3: Safety of users and people around them:

Between 300 and 400 NZers are killed in motor vehicle crashes every year. By contrast, between 40 and 60 NZers are victims of murder or manslaughter every year. (And yet people grizzle endlessly about how there are too many cops on the roads and not enough doing "real" policing, go figure.)

Point 4:

Recent famines in Africa due to a spike in food prices that instantly followed new european biofuel resolutions (because huge areas of food crops were immediately ripped up and replanted for more lucrative biofuel production.)
nathanmac, Nov 15, 4:05pm
I found when debating at school on a point you didn't agree with (or were facing a seemingly impossible stance), humour was the best option.If you get the audience laughing you might lose on points from the adjuticators but you've won the hearts and minds of the people.

I once had to debate against the importance of wearing a tidy school uniform with the sole adjudicator being our dean who thought nothing of giving students detention for a scruffy appearance.Can't remember what all I said but everyone was in stitches and it was effective to the point that the dean interrupted the debate after my piece and gave his own speech on the whys and wherefores of his opinion.

Needless to say we lost but had the most colourful debate and got the message through a different way. No-one remembers facts and figures, but they'll remember a good joke.

So. cars are a curse because it means we have to wach turkeys like Jeremy Clarkson drive perfectly good Rolls Royces into swimming pools

Cars are a curse because there's always so many of them on the road when I need to drive to work in a hurry

Cars are a curse because every time I want to go to the shops to get a hokey pokey ice cream for my air brushing chimpanzee I find my 2 year old toddler has taken the neighbours kid out surfing in the Santa Fe.

Cars are a curse because now horse manure is a valuable commodity - have you seen how much that's been hit by inflation!!A couple of generations ago if you wanted to feed the garden you just had to take your shovel out the front gate and it was everywhere - FREE!

And finish up with something like Bring Back the Horse! (fold out sign ala bring back buck might help!)

etc., etc.,
socram, Nov 15, 6:29pm
nathanmac wrote:

So. cars are a curse because it means we have to watch turkeys like Jeremy Clarkson drive perfectly good Rolls Royces into swimming poolsquote]
Good post, but you got that a bit wrong as that particular RR was a total rot box and was on the way to the scrapyard.Having regularly driven a Silver Shadow for an ex-boss, they were far from long lasting and trouble free compared to earlier models.

Modern electric cars are a curse as they cost a fortune to make, won't last long and unlike the horse, you can't eat them or feed them to your dog when they are past their use by date.

Maybe you could stretch the point a bit by emphasising the modern aspect as a 40 year old Morris Minor is overall, kinder to the environment than a Prius.

The curse of a car rather than a horse or a motorbike is that you don't have to choose between taking your girlfriend out in bad weather or carrying a crate of beer.Too many unwanted pregnancies due to the goings on in the back seats of cars!

Unless you buy an old Ferrari for example, one curse of the car is that as soon as you drive it out of the showroom, its value plummets.
nathanmac, Nov 15, 6:41pm
Quite true, in all honesty I stopped watching Top Gear a long time ago, and I did recall the slightly less than perfect 'restoration' he gave it (bog and spray can).There are many less than perfect examples of cars on Tv etc., that could be exploited for the purpose of the debate, and it can be a lot of fun playing the devil's advocate if done the right way.

And your Morris Minor point reminded me of a great saying - 'Morris Minors. Putting oil back into the earth for over 60 years - you can't get any greener than that.'
socram, Nov 15, 11:42pm
LOLApplies even more to British Motorbikes.
nathanmac, Nov 16, 3:36am
I don't think I did my uncle's heart any good after he popped round in his '68 Jag straight after he had the engine reconditioned.As he was pulling out the drive I ran out waving my arms yelling at him 'Stop, stop there's something wrong!'He pulled up aghast and I told him 'something's not right, you've been parked there for nearly an hour and there's no patch of oil on the drive.'Needed a camera to get the reaction.
curlcrown, Nov 16, 7:52pm
How are you supposed to argue a stupid point like that.! What is it with "education" You might as well be arguing that the sky is green.
neville64, Nov 17, 7:56pm
Thanks for the help so far guys great points
socram, Nov 17, 8:54pm
That is what debating is all about.Have you never been involved! Jaycees used to have great debates and it is not about the subject, it about your debating skills.It is all about understanding debating procedures and your ability to speak to an audience.
In the western World, mans' (that includes women of course) biggest fear is not of spiders or rats of even politicians, it is of public speaking and anything a school can do to get school kids debating gets my vote every time.They might just turn out to be better managers and supervisors because of it.

Going on your punctation skills, maybe your education wasn't so flash!I failed English at school too and left school at 16 so I am not an academic either, but at least junior school taught me punctuation.
nathanmac, Nov 19, 2:21am
So, how did the debate go!
neville64, Nov 22, 8:55pm
we got a draw a re-debate is happening on Facebook should be banned we are agreeing.
freedomaira320, Nov 22, 9:58pm
That's the whole point. Being able to argue something you don't agree with is an invaluable tool in any sort of negotiation. Understanding where the other side comes from, no matter how ludicrous, will always put you in a stronger position to get your own point of view across.
nathanmac, Nov 23, 4:30am
Well that almost gets my vote - Facebook can be very time consuming, but having family in various parts of the world, it's a great easy way of loosely keeping up with everyone.I just finished uploading pics of our big trip to Dunedin today and the kids had a blast when the trains came into the station - the in-laws would otherwise miss out seeing all those pics.

But there's plenty of ways to get stuck into that subject - good luck!
richardmayes, Nov 15, 4:00pm
Point 1: Financial burden to the owner

Cars are a depreciating asset, with maintenance costs that become unpredictable and approach the value of the car as it gets older.
Many of them are bought on finance using money borrowed at much higher than bank interest rates. Fuel costs grow exponentially and this trend will continue.

Point 2:Cost to the world:

Huge balance of payments deficit between oil consuming and producing states. The main driver of many wars in recent decades.

Point 3: Safety of users and people around them:

Between 300 and 400 NZers are killed in motor vehicle crashes every year. By contrast, between 40 and 60 NZers are victims of murder or manslaughter every year. (And yet people grizzle endlessly about how there are too many cops on the roads and not enough doing "real" policing, go figure.)

Point 4:(maybe more a subset of point 2)

Recent famines in Africa due to a spike in food prices that instantly followed new european biofuel resolutions (because huge areas of food crops were immediately ripped up and replanted for more lucrative biofuel production.)
nathanmac, Nov 15, 4:05pm
I found when debating at school on a point you didn't agree with (or were facing a seemingly impossible stance), humour was the best option.If you get the audience laughing you might lose on points from the adjudicators but you've won the hearts and minds of the people.

I once had to debate against the importance of wearing a tidy school uniform with the sole adjudicator being our dean who thought nothing of giving students detention for a scruffy appearance.Can't remember what all I said but everyone was in stitches and it was effective to the point that the dean interrupted the debate after my piece and gave his own speech on the whys and wherefores of his opinion.

Needless to say we lost but had the most colourful debate and got the message through a different way. No-one remembers facts and figures, but they'll remember a good joke.

So. cars are a curse because it means we have to wach turkeys like Jeremy Clarkson drive perfectly good Rolls Royces into swimming pools

Cars are a curse because there's always so many of them on the road when I need to drive to work in a hurry

Cars are a curse because every time I want to go to the shops to get a hokey pokey ice cream for my air brushing chimpanzee I find my 2 year old toddler has taken the neighbours kid out surfing in the Santa Fe.

Cars are a curse because now horse manure is a valuable commodity - have you seen how much that's been hit by inflation!!A couple of generations ago if you wanted to feed the garden you just had to take your shovel out the front gate and it was everywhere - FREE!

And finish up with something like Bring Back the Horse! (fold out sign ala bring back buck might help!)

etc., etc.,
socram, Nov 15, 6:29pm
Good post, but you got that a bit wrong as that particular RR was a total rot box and was on the way to the scrapyard.Having regularly driven a Silver Shadow for an ex-boss, they were far from long lasting and trouble free compared to earlier models.

Modern electric cars are a curse as they cost a fortune to make, won't last long and unlike the horse, you can't eat them or feed them to your dog when they are past their use by date.

Maybe you could stretch the point a bit by emphasising the modern aspect as a 40 year old Morris Minor is overall, kinder to the environment than a Prius.

The curse of a car rather than a horse or a motorbike is that you don't have to choose between taking your girlfriend out in bad weather or carrying a crate of beer.Too many unwanted pregnancies due to the goings on in the back seats of cars!

Unless you buy an old Ferrari for example, one curse of the car is that as soon as you drive it out of the showroom, its value plummets.
guest, Nov 2, 5:42pm
Bob