Blog 12: Revised Outline

My revised outline is similar to the original, except for more information in my conclusion and another piece of support.

Rogerian Method

Thesis

• Reducing business taxes would result in increased GDP and reduced unemployment, and will be overall beneficial to the economy.

Introduction

• Background: The American corporate tax system is among the highest in the world, and economic data and theory concludes the reduction of corporate taxes as well as other business taxes will result in increased GDP and reduced unemployment.
• Quote: “American-based multinational companies have shifted more activity offshore; their foreign employment has steadily risen over the past decade as domestic employment has declined”-The Economist
• A reduction in business taxes will be beneficial to the economy by giving American companies a comparable advantage over foreign companies which will increase profits. This will increase employment and by definition GDP.

The audience perspective

• Reducing business taxes will mean either increased national debt or increased consumer taxes.
  • For the former, if the national debt increases it could have the opposite effect on the economy as the reduction on business taxes. It would result in increased interest rates, thus reducing investment and consumption, leading to reduced GDP and increased unemployment.
  • For the increased consumer taxes scenario, there will be an unfair distribution in taxes. This will be unfair to the American people, even though economic theory states it doesn’t matter who the tax is placed on, it does matter in a since of equity between consumer and business.
  • Reducing business taxes will make it harder for the government to place excise taxes on certain products or companies that are producing harmful goods or services. So the reduction in business taxes will lead to more harmful products being produced and would decrease overall standard of living by a certain amount.

The author’s perspective

• Reducing business taxes will make it easier for America companies to compete with foreign companies. This will result in increased exports to foreign companies and decreased imports from those companies. When American businesses make more profit they expand and hire new employees.
• An increase in net exports acts as a stimulus to the economy, when exports increase and imports decrease the economy will be permanently improved. This will cause new investment which will result in increased future growth. So increasing exports now will help the economy for some time in the future.
• Reduced business taxes may increase wages of those already employed adding to the real GDP via the multiplier effect.

Conclusion

• A summary of the current economic climate of the United States. Real GDP is growing at a slower than optimum rate, and unemployment is at a persistently high rate.
• Reducing business taxes will result in increased economic performance now and in the future. Although, there are some downsides to this plan like the fact that this reduction will either lead to increased national debt of increased consumer taxes, or it will make placing excise taxes on business more difficult. The overall benefits of this plan will help the American business, American people, and the American government more than hurt it. The benefits will include increased salary, jobs, and standard of living for all Americans.
• Find data of examples in other countries of the differences of real GDP growth before and after reductions.

 

Blog 11: Logos, Ethos, Pathos.

In my alphabetic argument on the benefits of reducing business taxes to decrease unemployment, I will use logos, ethos, and pathos.

Logos: I will logos by structuring my argument in a way that by the end, hopefully, the only rational way to think about business taxes is the way I pointed out. Logos will be my mode of persuasion; I will use factual evidence and economic theory to describe the effects of reducing business taxes. I will make my argument more logical then emotional, sense I feel logic is the all that I will need after I present my evidence.

Ethos: I will only use very credible authors and sources. I will use authors that have experience in the field of economics or business. Also, much of my sources will come from economic text books, and I will try to present it in such a way that the audience doesn’t feel mislead.  This will support the logos side of my argument because by making myself seem more credible will make my argument more logical.

Pathos: I will use pathos sparingly. I will be ending with pathos, or an emotional appeal for reducing business taxes to drive home my point, and make my argument seem more urgent and that it needs support. I will say something like ‘reducing business taxes will help good honest American’s get back to work to feed their families’. Also, I will be “speaking sweetly” throughout the argument to make sure and not offend my secondary audience.

 

Blog 10: Argument Outline CO.300.40

Rogerian Method

Thesis

• Reducing business taxes would result in increased GDP and reduced unemployment, and will be overall beneficial to the economy.

Introduction

• Background: The American corporate tax system is among the highest in the world, and economic data and theory concludes the reduction of corporate taxes as well as other business taxes will result in increased GDP and reduced unemployment.
• Quote: “American-based multinational companies have shifted more activity offshore; their foreign employment has steadily risen over the past decade as domestic employment has declined”-The Economist
• A reduction in business taxes will be beneficial to the economy by giving American companies a comparable advantage over foreign companies which will increase profits. This will increase employment and by definition GDP.

The audience perspective

• Reducing business taxes will mean either increased national debt or increased consumer taxes.
  • For the former, if the national debt increases it could have the opposite effect on the economy as the reduction on business taxes. It would result in increased interest rates, thus reducing investment and consumption, leading to reduced GDP and increased unemployment.
  • For the increased consumer taxes scenario, there will be an unfair distribution in taxes. This will be unfair to the American people, even though economic theory states it doesn’t matter who the tax is placed on, it does matter in a since of equity between consumer and business.
  • Reducing business taxes will make it harder for the government to place excise taxes on certain products or companies that are producing harmful goods or services. So the reduction in business taxes will lead to more harmful products being produced and would decrease overall standard of living by a certain amount.

The author’s perspective

• Reducing business taxes will make it easier for America companies to compete with foreign companies. This will result in increased exports to foreign companies and decreased imports from those companies. When American businesses make more profit they expand and hire new employees.
• An increase in net exports acts as a stimulus to the economy, when exports increase and imports decrease the economy will be permanently improved. This will cause new investment which will result in increased future growth. So increasing exports now will help the economy for some time in the future.

Conclusion

• Reducing business taxes will result in increased economic performance now and in the future. Although, there are some downsides to this plan like the fact that this reduction will either lead to increased national debt of increased consumer taxes, or it will make placing excise taxes on business more difficult. The overall benefits of this plan will help the American business, American people, and the American government more than hurt it. The benefits will include increased salary, jobs, and standard of living for all Americans.

 

Blog 9: Mission Statement CO.300.40

Mission Statement

What’s wrong?

• Corporate taxes as well as other business taxes are taking a harmful toll on the American economy. Right now corporate tax rates in America are among the highest in the world. This causes the prices of American goods to increase as businesses try to compensate for this extra burden. As a result foreign competitors, whose governments don’t tax them as much, have an advantage over American corporations. This causes American firms to sell less and lose out on valuable international profit, as well as profit here in America.

Who is impacted?

• Everybody is impacted by this tax, from unemployed single moms to the CEOs of top fortune 500 companies, the effects of these taxes are far reaching. It is easy to see how the executives of businesses would be affected by these taxes, the tax is right out of their profits, but the average Joe is also affected. When it becomes too costly to do business the heads of businesses either downsize, lower pay, or demand more efficient work at no extra cost. All of these things hurt the regular worker.

How did it come to this?

• America once had the lowest corporate tax rates in the world. Over the last few decades the rest of the world has chosen to lower the corporate taxes in exchange for other forms of revenue in order to give their businesses an advantage. America on the other hand has not. The reason for this is the U.S. government has a hard time decreases taxes on business because it gives the impression of favoritism to big business, even though economic evidence clearly shows the  burden of the tax doesn’t not matter who it is placed on (if business are taxed they just pass the tax on to the consumers).

How to fix it?

• Luckily the fix is very simple. The government just has to lower or eliminate corporate taxes and other forms of business taxes, while at the same time raising the taxes in other forms to compensate for the reduction in revenue. However, as I stated above the government has a hard time reducing business taxes even though most of them are well aware of the benefits. So it is important that the American people know these benefits too, for that there must be public service announcements about this subject in order to inform the average citizen.

Annotated Bibliographies and Multimodal text

Link to video Part 1:http://goanimate.com/videos/0T2bcTTEVfeU?utm_source=linkshare

Link to video Part 2: http://goanimate.com/videos/04lY-MlZf-Oc?utm_source=linkshare

Link to video Part 3: http://goanimate.com/videos/04W2TPRqKOlk?utm_source=linkshare

Annotated Bibliography 1

 Corporate Tax Rates. “Corporate Tax Rates a Useful Trim” The Economist, 25 February 2012. Web. 19 March 2012 <economist.com>

      “Corporate Tax Rates” published by The Economist on 25 February 2012, focuses on how America has fallen behind the rest of the world in corporate tax rates. While the rest of the world has been steadily reducing their corporate tax rates, America has been reluctant to do the same (Corporate Tax Rates). As a result, according to the article “Corporate Tax Rates”, “American-based multinational companies have shifted more activity offshore; their foreign employment has steadily risen over the past decade as domestic employment has declined”. President Obama and four presidential hopefuls have plans to reduce this rate, but don’t have a way to pay for this decreased revenue, which may decide if reform is actually made (Corporate Tax Rates).

This article “Corporate Tax Rates a Useful Trim” helps describes how American corporate tax laws are outdated and lacking a competitive edge compared to the rest of the world. This article is very credible; the publisher (The Economist) is a very well-known and unbiased source of economic data and predictions. This article is important to my research because it shows that there is motive for America to reduce corporate tax laws. Since large manufacturing corporations decide where to produce their products based on these laws. Before I thought reducing corporate tax rates in America would cause and increase advantage in America’s economic superiority, but now I feel a reduction in corporate taxes is needed just to compete with the rest of the world in the coming years.

Annotated Bibliography 2

Franks, Robert H. “The Illusory Attraction of Taxing Business” Microeconomics and Behavior, 8^th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. 364-365. Print.

            The section The Illusory Attraction of Taxing Business from the book “Microeconomics and Behavior” by Robert H. Frank, focuses on how in a perfectly competitive market there is no difference between taxing a consumer and taxing a business. According to Frank, a tax placed on a business will be passed on to the consumers via higher prices. However, lawmakers have a better chance of imposing higher taxes when there are on businesses rather than on consumers (Robert H. Frank). The effect of this tax is a number of firms in that certain industry going out of business (Robert H. Frank).

Frank’s article was informative on the relative impacts of a tax on consumers and businesses. This piece was credible because the author is a well-known economist from Cornell University, and was published in a college level economic textbook. This article is important to my research because it infers how an increase in consumer taxes along with a decrease in business taxes would not significantly affect the budget deficit, since both taxes are essentially the same in perfectly competitive markets. Frank’s article shows how a business tax would affect the prices of their products. Before I thought that businesses would pay taxes purely out of profits instead of raising prices, but now I know they would raise prices.

Annotated Bibliography 3

Colander, David C. “Comparative Advantage in Today’s Economy” Microeconomics 8^th ed., New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. 206-208. Print.

            The “Comparative Advantage in Today’s Economy” section in David C. Colander’s book “Microeconomics, published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin in 2010, focuses on how trade benefits nations due to comparative advantage. David argues that comparative advantage benefits the United States by allowing for many cheap imports which causes the purchasing power of the dollar to increases. However, as David states, comparative advantage only benefits a nation through trade if the imports in that nation equals the exports. If it does not a nation must pay for this increased debt (David C. Colander). As Colander states, because other countries can sell their products for less the U.S. national debt will continue to increase.

Colander’s piece was informative on how a specific country’s firms faces competition from other country’s firms. This piece is credible because it was publish in a college level text book by David C. Colander an accomplished economist from Middlebury College. The reading is important to my research because it demonstrates how increase prices in the United States can lead to lower net exports, due to comparative advantage between nations. Colander’s article shows that comparative advantage causes trade to be more beneficial to a nation then harmful, but if net exports become too low it may lead to damaging side effects. Before I read this article I didn’t realize how beneficial trade can be between nations.

Annotated Bibliography 4

Schiller, Bradley R. “Recessionary GDP Gap” The Macro Economy Today for ECON 204, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2011. 192. Print.

            The section “Recessionary GDP Gap” in the book “The Macro Economy Today for ECON 204” published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin in 2011, focuses on how recessions and unemployment comes about. According to Schiller, real GDP is the sum of consumer purchases, investments, government expenditures, and net exports. When one of these components falls when real GDP equals full-employment GDP, than a recessionary GDP gap emerges (Schiller). A recessionary GDP gap is the amount below full employment GDP, the current GDP is at (Schiller). According to Schiller, when a recessionary GDP gap emerges cyclical unemployment (unemployment attributed to lack of job vacancies) follows.

Schiller piece was informative on how a reduction in a component of real GPD can lead to recession and unemployment. The piece was credible because the author is a very accomplished economist with decades of experience. Also, this piece was published in a college level text book. This reading is important to my research because it details how a reduction in net exports can cause unemployment. Schiller’s reading shows what factors of real GDP are and how an effect in one of them causes a change in real GDP. Before I read this piece I didn’t know how decreasing net exports causes unemployment.

Annotated Bibliography 5

Schoen, John W. “How Dangerous is the National Debt” MSNBC. 02 November 2007. Web. 24 March 2012 <msnbc.com>

            “How Dangerous is the National Debt” by John W. Schoen, published on November 2^nd 2007 by msnbc.com, describes the growth and the size of the national debt in 2007 compared to previous years, and how this debt effects the economy. As Schoen states, the national debt creates problems for a multiple of reasons, one of which is the interest the government has to pay on its debt. According to Schoen states in 2007, 9 cents of every dollar in taxes is spent on interest payments. As Schoen states, if this debt gets too big investors in the U.S. government may not trust they will be paid back, causing the government to increase interest rates on their bonds. This increase will result in increased interest rates over the entire economy, making it harder for businesses to invest and reducing GDP growth.

This article describes how the national debt has many negative side effects that may hurt GDP. This article is credible; it is published by MSNBC a well-known news organization. However, MSNBC is left leaning but this article doesn’t support either political party. This article is important to my article because it infers how an increase in national debt due to decreased business taxes can have an adverse effect on GDP and therefore unemployment. This article describes what causes these effects. Before I read this article I didn’t know just how big the effect the debt had on the economy.

Annotated Bibliography 6

Palacios, Milagros, and Kumi Harischandra. “The Impact of Taxes on Economic Behavior: High Taxes Decrease Growth and Investment”. February 2008. Web. 24 March 2012 <pirate.shu.edu>

            The article “The Impact of Taxes on Economic Behavior: High Taxes Decrease Growth and Investment” by Milagros Palacios & Kumi Harischandra published in February of 2008, studies the various effects of the taxes on economic performance. According to Milagros and Harischandra, a study done by the “Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development” found that for every ten percent increase in marginal tax rate reduces economic growth by 0.23 percentage points. The reasons for these effects, according to Milagros and Harischandra, are “high and increasing marginal tax rates reduce economic growth by creating strong disincentives to hard work, savings, investment, and entrepreneurship” (Milagros and Harischandra).

Milagros and Harischandra article was informative on the negative effects taxes have on the economy. This piece was credible because they got most of their resources from college studies as well as economic and governmental studies. This article is important to my research because it states a reduction in corporate taxes will result in a direct increase in economic performance. This article showed the initial effect of any tax change on the economy. Before I read this I did not think that a reduction in taxes would help the economy in so many ways.

Annotated Bibliography 7

The Effect of. “The Effect of an Excise Tax on Market Price and Quantity (Part I).” University of Washington. Web. 25 March 2012, <Washington.edu>

            The paper “The Effect of an Excise Tax on Market Price and Quantity (Part 1)” published by the University of Washington, states an excise tax is a tax placed usually on a business to compensate for a negative side effect of their product. For example as “The Effect of” illustrates, the excise tax on cigarettes in Washington is $3.025. “The Effect of” explains that an excise tax can either be put on a buyer or the seller. If it is on the seller it is included in the price of the product, but if it is on the buyer the price shows up at the time of sell (The Effect of). However, due to tax equivalence the tax is the same to both parties no matter who it is assigned to (The Effect of).

This article was informative of how excise taxes are used to place an added burden to those things with negative side effects to society. Also, that it is mostly used as a business tax not a sales tax. The article is important to my research because as the article suggests if business taxes are eliminated altogether it would be harder for the government to implement these excise taxes. This article states that most excise taxes are placed on businesses. Before I read this article I did not know that eliminating business taxes would make it harder to institute excise taxes.

Rhetorical Context Analysis Questions

1. What will you research and write about for Units 3 and 4? Why are you interested in this topic? I am going to write about the benefits of eliminating corporate taxes. I am interested in the topic because I am an economics major and it seems like a good way to reduce unemployment and increase growth of real GDP.

 2. How is your topic in need of urgent, immediate attention—how is it exigent? Due to the recent recession unemployment rate is still at 8.3%. Eliminating corporate taxes could accelerate the economic recovery and significantly reduce unemployment.

3. What do you already know about your topic? What do you need to learn about your topic? I already know that eliminating corporate taxes would increase the willingness for firms to operate in the United States. Also, some of the tax reduction will be passes on the consumers adding some extra stimulus to the economy. Also, corporate taxes are the third largest source of revenue for the U.S. government and eliminating these would probably greatly increase the government deficit. I need to learn about the effects this higher national debt could have, also just how much will companies respond to lower corporate taxes.

 4. What is your stance on your topic—what you will be arguing with regard to your topic in Unit 4? I will be arguing for the reduction of elimination of corporate taxes. Because of the economic benefits it could have on our nation.

 5. What oppositional or differing stances will you need to refute in your argument? How much do you know so far about why people might disagree with you? One oppositional stance could be that it is unfair that corporations don’t have to pay taxes and the entire burden falls to the consumers. Another could be that a reduction in corporate taxes will greatly increase the national deficit which could lead to many more economic problems than would be fixed by the policy. I know little about who these people who would disagree with me are.

 6. What kinds of research do you intend to gather? Why? I intend to do most of my research via economic textbooks and other author papers on the subject. I think textbooks are a reliable source and I have easy access to them.

 7. who is your target audience? Why have you chosen this group to address? My target audience would be individuals who are currently worried about America’s economic well-being, and are looking ideas that may help derive a better political viewpoint for them to have. I’ve chosen this group because it is the group that could be the most affected by this argument. In that, they’re the ones who will most likely read my article and be persuaded by it.

 8. What kinds of agency does this audience have with regard to your topic? How does this audience have agency with regard to your group’s message/purpose? My audience may contact the local representative to ask him if he will support this viewpoints, or my audience also could vote different ways (for different parties) if they are persuaded. Many people would like this unemployment problem to end faster.

 9. What are some possible limitations and opportunities posed by your rhetorical situation? Some limitations to my argument may be that politics in America is very polarized so it would be hard for most to be persuaded by any argument. However, if they do they could be better informed, so they may choose better candidates in the future.

Rogerian Vs. Toulmin

                After working with both Rogerian and Toulmin, I feel the Rogerian method is more effective, although Toulmin is an excellent method for argumentation. The Toulmin method is very thorough and rational. All the elements of the Toulmin method create a very persuasive argument but I think the effectiveness of the argument could be diminished by the procedural practices and the stringent structural requirements, the many elements will change the way you write to paper and the references you use. The paper would lack, because of all elements must be implemented, even in places where it doesn’t help the argument. The Rogerian method, on the other hand, is still an effective argument while allowing the author to be more creative. Also, and most importantly, the Rogerian method seems to be more ‘mature’. The Rogerian method doesn’t just show the pros of what the author is arguing for, and the cons of what he’s arguing against, but show the pros and cons of both. I think this would be more persuasive to any audience because they can better relate to the author. For instance, if I choose the argument “there should be no corporate taxes in America”, the Toulmin method would display only the pros of the argument without displaying any of the obvious cons. This would make me less trustworthy and my argument would be left lacking integrity. But if I write the cons and then pros the audience might be persuaded to see this view my way.

Visual Argument

 

        The political cartoon entitled “The Puritan” illustrated by Ed Hall depicts presidential candidate Rick Santorum wearing puritan clothing, with a bible in hand, standing on a pile of gagged, pregnant women. I feel this is a visual argument according to J. Anthony Blair, because the image is explicit and can be easily translated into words. Those words could be something like; Rick Santorum wants to hamper women rights by removing the right to have an abortion because of his deep-seated views about the bible and its meanings. This argument can be translated into demonstrate all of the necessary criteria involved in an argument I agree with Blair criteria of an argument. I also think this article passes all those criteria, this clearly is an argument.  .

            According to the article “The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments” by J. Anthony Blair, published 1996, lists the properties of and argument. According to Blair, the first of these is that there must be a claim, this picture meets this requirement by having the claim of; Rick Santorum wants to abolish the right to abortion. The second and third properties arguments have, according to Blair are, there is a reason supporting the claim and the reasons must be clearly expressed, respectively. This picture satisfies the second and third criteria by clearly supporting its claim by having Rick Santorum dressed in puritan garb and holding a bible, emphasizing his dedicated view to the bible. The fourth property, according to Blair is, the claim is easy to put into words, the picture satisfies this by using several details to drive home its point. Such as, the puritan clothes, bible, the pregnant women, and the gags. This argument is being used by political pundits as well as Santorum’s opposition; this satisfies Blair’s fifth and sixth properties, ‘there is an attempt to communicate the claim’ and ‘someone must be using the claim and reason’.

            The last two properties according to Blair are, “there is some intended recipient audience” and “it is the intention of the “user” to bring the recipients to accept the claim on the basis of the reason(s) offered” (Blair 48). In my opinion, both of these properties are satisfied. First, the audience would be women rights and pro-choice advocates, sense this picture clearly depicts Santorum in a negative light. I don’t think pro-life advocates would be the intended audience. Next, by publishing the picture the user or the author wants to this audience to agree with him, thereby satisfying the final criteria.

Works Cited

 Blair, J. Anthony. ” The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments”, Rhetorical Readings for Advanced Writers. (1996): 48. Print

Hall, Ed. The Puritan. 22 February 2012, The Association of American Editorial Cartoonist. Web. <editorialcartoonists.com>

Toulmin Analysis

Claim:

• It is time for us to rethink our landscaping practices.

Data:

• In Fort Collins, we must use herbicides when growing these foreign turfs.
• Americans dump over 70 million pounds of herbicides and pesticides onto our lawns each year.
• In the West, 60 percent of urban water goes to watering lawns.
• Lawn care experts recommend that fertilizer be applied to bluegrass three to four times per growing season.                                                    

Warrant:

• In our arid Western climate and poor soil, the traditional lawn takes too much water, time, and harmful chemicals to maintain.
• The local weeds are much hardier and there are city ordinances and homeowners’ covenants against noxious weeds.
• Varieties of grass that are more resistant to pests, disease, and weeds and are better suited to the West make this risk unnecessary.
• 7 More appropriate species of grass would save time and money by making fertilizers and amendments obsolete.
• In spite of this, we in Fort Collins persist in our quest to have these traditional lawns.

Backing:

• So why aren’t we hearing about alternatives from the lawn care industry? Because they have a lot to lose–billions of our dollars.
• Since the cost of maintaining an alternative is so low, lawn care experts have no stake in keeping us informed about more appropriate species or in making them easy to obtain.
• We get most of our information about lawn care and gardening from the lawn care industry itself.

Qualifiers:

• Most of the varieties of plants stocked in local nurseries require a lot of care and water to thrive.

Rebuttals:

• The cost of switching to less hungry and thirsty landscaping can quickly be made up in the cost saved on water and maintenance.
• Initial costs can be kept to a minimum by overseeding with these new types of grass seeds, seeding bare patches with them, and letting them take hold gradually.

5 Words I Don’t Know From “The Rhetorical Situation”

1.) exigence. Def:In rhetoric, an issue, problem, or situation that causes or prompts someone to write or speak.

2.) epideictic. Def:designed to display something, esp the skill of the speaker in rhetoric.

3.) pragmatic. Def: relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters : practical as opposed to idealistic.

4.) inextricably. Def: forming a maze or tangle from which it is impossible to get free.

5.) propitious. Def:Giving or indicating a good chance of success; favorable.