Impact Calculus

Near the end of the round both you and your opponents will probably have some impacts standing from each of your points– most likely, both sides have not refuted all points and do not even have time to do so– as a result, you need to compare the impacts. Some ways of pitching two impacts against each other are listed below:

Probability - how likely it is for your impact to happen. Ex: global warming is more likely than nuclear war

Magnitude - how bad your impact is. Ex: a person dying is worse than a person’s income decreasing

Scope - How many people/things does your impact affect. Ex: A world war may affect more people than gang violence in one city

Urgency - How soon your impact is going to happen and/or whether other things can stop it from happening. Ex: global warming will take a long time to happen while economic collapse can happen quickly Reversibility - Once your impact happens is there any hope for the world? Ex: One cannot reverse the effects of extinction but one can reverse the effects of an economic decline

Based on any of these factors, you can argue to the judge that the impacts on your side of the house outweigh those still standing on the other side. Often times a good way of phrasing this is with an “even if” structure whenever there’s a point that’s dubious as to whether it’s still standing or not. This often gives you brownie points to the judge for circumventing a simple “we said it’s right” “well we said it’s wrong” scenario– you can essentially say that “even if their point stands, the result at the end of the day still is positive/negative because x, y, z.”

You can also often times argue one impact’s relevance over the other by establishing how your impact both includes their impact and has additional benefits/drawbacks that aren’t addressed on their side of the house.

Drill

Compare the following pairs of competing impacts. Pick one of each pair and show why it is worse than its companion impact. Then show why the reverse comparison is true. Especially note how you can often work one impact into the other, thereby nullifying the result of their claims. Economic growth vs. environmental degradation Warfare vs. poverty Individual rights vs. social welfare Earthquakes vs. flooding Nuclear proliferation vs. biological weapons proliferation

Video

Introduction to Impact Calculus: