Guaranteed Offense: The Cost
In the last two posts, we explored Disadvantages and Backfires. Today, we cover the third and last kind of Detriment.
Cost: A Detriment claiming that the plan causes missed opportunities.
Disadvantages and Backfires are focused on the bad stuff that the plan introduces. The Cost focuses on the good stuff that is lost if we adopt the Plan. It’s the negative equivalent to an advantage; it talks up the positives of the status quo to get the judge excited about staying put.
As with all Detriments, the Cost has 3 optional sub-points.
Link: Plan change that requires spending a resource or missing an opportunity.
This will often be provided directly to you by the affirmative Provision plank. If it’s not, you can often present it as a “gotcha” moment - indicating that you thought through the aff position more thoroughly than they did.
Every plan has at least some opportunity cost: time, money, attention, etc. This argument class is about formally identifying and impacting it.
Plan: Marry Sasha.
Link: Monogamy. By committing to Sasha for life, the Plan makes it impossible for you to marry Erica.
Direction: How the negative option would use that resource/opportunity.
Again, most of the time “negative option” = status quo.
Direction talks up how well the status quo is doing; how it’s doing something great that we shouldn’t disrupt with the Plan. Be as tangible as possible here. Instead of abstract stuff like dollars, connect it to things those dollars could/are paying for. Build up the direction as something we definitely don’t want to lose.
Direction: You Love Erica. You and Erica are in love and talking about getting married. She’s the woman of your dreams.
You can run hypothetical or future Directions, but the more removed they are from the moment, they less powerful they are. The best Direction is something that is definitely happening right now.
Comparison: Why the negative option use is better than the plan use.
Directly comparing and contrasting the Link and the Direction is critical, especially since they often relate to different things (like environmental regulation that cleans the air but slows economic growth). Explicitly analyze the two options. Don’t just tell the judge that the Direction is good; tell the judge why it is better than the Link.
Comparison: Romance. Marrying the woman you love is better than marrying the one you don’t. Sasha is a good person, but the marriage would be platonic. With Erica, you could experience marital bliss.
Here’s another example.
Plan: Buy a new car.
Link: Entire savings. The proposed car costs exactly all of your life savings.
Direction 1: Rainy Day. You’ve been keeping that money for an unexpected expense or emergency.
Direction 2: Old car works fine. Your current car may not be impressive, but it gets you from A to B.
Comparison: Peace of Mind. When that unforeseen expense comes along - and it always does - you’ll be okay because you saved for it. You’ll be glad you didn’t blow the money on a shiny new car that didn’t tangibly improve your life.
Plan: Trade school. Attend night classes to become a plumber.
Direction: 8 Hours. In the status quo, you’re getting a full night’s rest, which in turn allows you to be your best during the day.
Link: Up Nights. The proposed class schedule will have you staying up past midnight almost every night.
Comparison: Sleep Matters. The life of a well-rested person is happy, focused, motivated, and energized. You don’t want to give that up.
Direction 1: Management Candidate. You’re doing well at the tire shop, and Jennifer says she’s thinking about promoting you to morning manager.
Direction 2: Great Pay. The tire shop pays its managers well and gives them excellent benefits - the kind you’d only see at the very highest levels in the plumbing industry.
Link 1: Shifted Focus. Putting your sleep and energy into plumbing school will keep you from bringing your A game to the tire shop.
Link 2: Jennifer will Know. The tire shop is like a family; everyone knows everyone. There’s no way you can attend trade school for years without Jennifer finding out about it.
Comparison: Best Career Option. Sticking with the tire shop gives you the shortest, clearest route to a satisfying job with the pay you want. Plumbing school gives that up for a longer, less certain route with a similar payoff.
The best thing about the Cost is that you’re guaranteed to be able to run one. Every Plan costs something. While policy debaters have always had the option of running these, the traditional argument classes were all pretty convoluted. You could run this as a harm response, or perhaps as a DA. A proper Cost gives you an obvious impact and the structure to parse it out.
Another surprise bonus: Costs allow you to embrace a positive tone while defending the status quo. In traditional theory, highly aggressive negatives talked nothing but doom-and-gloom: this is a terrible idea, look at all these bad things that will happen. Costs let you shift to talking about good stuff without compromising on your strategy.
There’s still a lot to discuss about Benefits and Detriments. Stay tuned.