Spelling It Out--Part Two

I am posting a sample affirmative case on a value resolution. I will be up front in saying the evidence is not correct so do not use it in your debates. This sample is to show you what an affirmative case should look /sound like.

Resolution: Money is the root of all evil

The Broadway musical, Cabaret, tells us money makes the world go round and singer Cyndi Laupher says, "Money changes everything..." however is the almighty dollar the motivation for all evil? I support the resolution, "Money is the root of all evil." To clarify the parameters of today's debate, I offer the following definitions from the Oxford English Dicitionary Online Edition:

Money--a symbolic representation of wealth using coin or paper.

root--at the base level or the core of something

all--everything or prevelance

evil-- a concept of sin representing destructive, unjust or wrong ideas or actions

In order to focus the affirmative position in today''s debate, I will center my arguments around the following thesis:

Vested intrests and greed in the attainment of wealth is the core of immoral actions

My first argument focuses on the premise that mankind's actions are based on vested interest. Abraham Maslow identified human needs in terms of a hierarchy of need. The foundation of human needs is called, base needs--those items needed for survival. These items are material objects like food, water, shelter, etc. In any modern society, material objects needed for survival have value and require a form of wealth to obtain the objects. The obvious representation of wealth in modern society is money, hence, possessing money is paramount to survival. People will take action, either moral or immoral, to attain items for survival. Maslow's concept of needs demonstrates survival is the basic need, and mankind will take action to ensure his need. Any action taken construed as evil can be interpreted as an attempt to obtain base needs for survival.

With man's need to possess items for survival being paramount, the natural consequence of coveting possessions is greed. The anti-hero Gordon Gekko in the movie, Wall Street tells us, "Greed...is good, greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of evolutionary spirit." While not the moral highpoint of man's character, Gekko's rhetoric about man's action is the more realistic and relevant in modern society. To ensure man's survival through the attainment of base needs, the primary emotion needed for success is greed. Gekko's commentary about 1980s America seems dark, but it also tells a success story that is the basis for the largest economy and the wealthiest nation on the planet. With greed the primary motivating factor in our society and the possession of wealth being the one certain way to ensure survival, evil is the likely consequence. Greed and evil go hand-in-hand together down the road of evolutionary development.

We see that "Money is the root of all evil" through the desire of objects needed for survival the the human emotion, greed, as the motivating factor in our character. We may not like to admit the evolutionary skeletons in our closet, yet those skeletons are not only the dark side of our nature, but also the trait that may best ensure our survival.