Argue Like You Mean It — With Evidence

Argue for or against tuition-free public college education. Address: funding mechanisms (who pays?), the value of a degree in the current economy, impact on private universities, international comparisons, and whether free college would actually increase equity or primarily benefit the middle class.

Argue for or against replacing traditional letter grades with narrative evaluations, portfolio assessments, or competency-based systems. Consider: what grades actually measure, how they affect motivation, whether they prepare students for the real world, and what alternatives would look like at scale.

Should students be required (or strongly incentivized) to take a gap year between high school and college? Argue your position using evidence about academic readiness, maturity, career clarity, dropout rates, and the economic implications for students who can't afford a year without income.

At what age (if ever) should students have full control over what they study? Argue for or against student-directed learning, addressing developmental readiness, the value of a shared knowledge base, motivation research, and examples from unschooling or democratic free schools.

Should homework be eliminated, reduced, or redesigned? Argue your position using research on homework's actual impact on learning (it varies dramatically by age), its effect on family time and equity, and what alternatives (if any) would replace the learning it's supposed to provide.

Some argue that privacy as traditionally understood is already gone, and society should adapt rather than fight to restore it. Others argue privacy is a fundamental right worth protecting at any cost. Take a position and defend it, addressing surveillance technology, social media culture, government access, corporate data collection, and the actual benefits (if any) of reduced privacy.

Is the existence of billionaires a sign of a healthy economy and innovation incentive, or evidence of a broken system that concentrates wealth while others lack basic needs? Argue your position with evidence about wealth creation, taxation, philanthropy versus systemic change, innovation incentives, and global poverty data.

Should governments provide a universal basic income (UBI) — a regular cash payment to every citizen, no strings attached? Argue for or against using evidence from pilot programs (Finland, Stockton, Kenya), labor market research, inflation concerns, and philosophical arguments about human motivation and dignity.

Over 20 countries require citizens to vote. Should your country adopt mandatory voting? Argue your position addressing democratic participation, individual freedom, the quality of forced votes, the impact on political polarization, and what mandatory voting has actually produced in countries like Australia and Belgium.

Should society actively promote lab-grown meat as a replacement for traditional animal agriculture? Argue your position considering environmental impact, animal welfare, food safety, cultural significance of traditional farming, economic disruption, and whether "natural" food has inherent value.

Should sports with high injury or death rates (boxing, MMA, bull riding, base jumping) be banned or more heavily regulated? Argue your position addressing personal autonomy, the cost of injuries to public health systems, informed consent, the entertainment industry's role, and where the line should be drawn between acceptable and unacceptable risk.

Should genetic editing of human embryos (using CRISPR or similar technology) be permitted — for disease prevention, for trait selection, or not at all? Argue your position addressing medical benefits, equity (who gets access?), the slippery slope from treatment to enhancement, disability rights perspectives, and consent of the unborn.

Should social media platforms have the right (or obligation) to remove content that is legal but harmful — misinformation, hate speech, conspiracy theories? Argue for or against platform content moderation, addressing the First Amendment, private company rights, the marketplace of ideas, and the real-world consequences of unmoderated speech.

Should parents track their teenagers' phones, read their messages, and monitor their online activity? Argue your position considering safety, trust, developmental need for autonomy, the reality of online dangers, and what research says about the effects of surveillance on parent-teen relationships.

Should terminally ill patients have the legal right to choose medically assisted death? Argue your position addressing personal autonomy, medical ethics, disability rights concerns (the "slippery slope"), religious perspectives, and evidence from jurisdictions where it's legal (Oregon, Netherlands, Canada).

Animal agriculture accounts for approximately 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Should governments impose a carbon tax on meat production to reflect its environmental cost? Argue your position addressing: consumer choice, economic impact on farmers and low-income families, the effectiveness of consumption taxes versus production regulations, cultural significance of meat in various traditions, and evidence from countries that have explored similar measures.

Several companies and countries have trialed the four-day work week with promising results in productivity and employee wellbeing. Should it become standard policy? Argue your position using evidence from pilot programs (Iceland, UK trials, Microsoft Japan), addressing which industries it works for, which it doesn't, the equity implications for hourly workers versus salaried employees, and whether productivity gains are sustainable or merely a novelty effect.

Several European cities have banned or severely restricted private vehicles in city centers, replacing them with public transit, cycling infrastructure, and pedestrian zones. Should this model be adopted more widely? Argue your position considering: air quality and public health data, economic impact on downtown businesses, accessibility for disabled individuals and the elderly, the adequacy of public transit alternatives, and the cultural identity of car-dependent cities.