今天的主题是Economics，事实上Economics算是辩论中最常见的一类辩题。按照马克思的看法，经济基础决定上层建筑，“economic base determines the superstructure”.

Simply put, “base” refers to the forces and relations of production—to all the people, relationships between them, the roles that they play, and the materials and resources involved in producing the things needed by society.

“Superstructure”, quite simply and expansively, refers to all other aspects of society.

It includes culture, ideology (world views, ideas, values, and beliefs), norms and expectations, identities that people inhabit, social institutions (education, religion, media, family, among others), the political structure, and the state (the political apparatus that governs society). Marx argued that the superstructure grows out of the base, and reflects the interests of the ruling class that controls the base.

大部分的辩题都或多或少地涉及到Economics，包括Minorities一类的问题，很多时候也可以从经济上面找到根源。而总体上看来，Economics往往关乎一系列First Principle的比较和考察。

从根本上讲，Economic Justice是两对矛盾之间的平衡，首先是Equality vs. Efficiency，另外就是Free Market vs State Control。其实，这两对矛盾也可以化约为一个核心问题，就是我们所追求的到底是程序上的经济公平（Economic Equality of Process，或者Economic Equality of Opportunity），还是结果上的经济公平（Economic Equality of Outcome）。

先看结果公平的问题，

One view is that there is a moral basis for equality of outcome, but that means to achieve such an outcome can be malevolent. Equality of outcome can be a good thing after it has been achieved since it reflects the natural "interdependence of citizens in a highly organized economy" and provides a "basis for social policies" which foster harmony and good will, including social cohesion and reduced jealousy.

An opposing view is that equality of outcomes is not beneficial overall for society since it dampens motivation necessary for humans to achieve great things, such as new inventions, intellectual discoveries, and artistic breakthroughs. According to this view, economic wealth and social status are rewards needed to spur such activity, and with these rewards diminished, then achievements which will ultimately benefit everybody will not happen as frequently.

程序公平，或者说机会公平即“Equal Opportunity”, is a stipulation that all people should be treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers or prejudices or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified. The aim is that important jobs should go to those “most qualified” – persons most likely to perform ably in a given task – and not go to persons for arbitrary or irrelevant reasons, such as circumstances of birth, upbringing, friendship ties to whoever is in power, religion, sex, ethnicity, race, caste, or involuntary personal attributes such as disability, age, gender, or sexual orientation.

机会公平也有两种不同的含义，其一为形式上的机会公平，即“Equality of Opportunity”, means that there should be "no arbitrary obstacles" blocking a person from realizing their ambitions, and that "Not birth, nationality, color, religion, sex, nor any other irrelevant characteristic should determine the opportunities that are open to a person – only his abilities.

另一派则强调实质上的机会公平, 他们认为the starting point before the race begins is unfair, since people have had differing experiences before even approaching the competition. The substantive approach examines the applicants themselves before applying for a position, and judges whether they have equal abilities or talents, and if not, then it suggests that authorities (usually the government) take steps to make applicants more equal before they get to the point where they compete for a position, and fixing the before-the-starting-point issues has sometimes been described as working towards "fair access to qualifications."

对实质性机会公平的批评主要体现在以下三点

(1)  Inequalities will always exist regardless of trying to erase them

(2)  It brings everyone "fairly to the starting line" without dealing with the "destructive competitiveness that follows"

(3)  Any equalities achieved will entail future inequalities. Substantive equality of opportunity has led to concerns that efforts to improve fairness "ultimately collapses into the different one of equality of outcome or condition.

经济类的辩论实在是太广泛了，在辩论比赛中，经济类的辩题数量上往往要高于其它相关领域内的辩题，而且在淘汰赛的阶段，尤其是高水平的国际比赛中，经济类的话题往往和其它领域内的问题杂糅在一起，使得辩题的问题区域和冲突点大大拓宽，这往往是检验真正的高水平辩手的试金石。今天我们只是把一些主要的原则性的问题进行了简单的介绍，后续我们会利用近期比较重要的一下比赛中出现的经济类辩题作为麻雀，对其进行解剖，讨论如何来建立高质量的case. 

宏辞论道，纵横天下

思辨精英：china_debate