National Qualifying Affirmative (No Question) Critique if you can.

Affirmative

“No Power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent” It is because I agree with Justice John Jay I must stand to affirm today's resolution: The States use of the power of eminent domain to promote private enterprise is Unjust

As Ben Franklin once said, “The smallest leak can sink a great ship”. Therefore each individual member of society should be respected. In fact throughout the course of human history one thing has led to revolution in many societies, a negligence of human welfare, which is why I chose Human Welfare as my value premise today. The maintenance of human welfare, the safety of our well being, is the reason all government is formed. But all governments must strive to ensure our welfare, ensure our safety and security. There are ways to go about maximizing our welfare, several are considered quite highly in intellectual circles, but one must look to the very foundations of political thought to understand the basis of our modern ideas of ethics. For this reason my criterion today, my filter for all other theories, shall be Aristotle’s Ethics. Aristotle's ethics is the idea that all moral actions aim at some good, through this idea there must be a highest good. Aristotle looked to happiness as the highest good. This included physical, spiritual, and intellectual

I offer the following definitions for this round
Justice- The virtue of protecting individuals' possessions within the acknowledged rules of conduct. (http://www.nelson.com/nelson/polisci/glossary.html)
Private Enterprise- Business activities unregulated by state ownership or control; privately owned business (American Heritage)
Eminent Domain- Power of state to take private property with just compensation

My First Contention- The Use of Eminent domain to promote private enterprise is unjust because it decreases our ability to reach the ultimate goal of happiness.
According to Aristotle in order for one to be happy they must have self fulfillment. Eminent Domain to promote private enterprise interferes with Self Fulfillment. This is because it takes that which makes it possible to gain fulfillment, property, As Aristotle once said, “It is not easy to perform noble actions if one lacks... the help of friends, wealth, and political power. And there are some external goods, the absence of which spoils supreme happiness.” Here Aristotle references the needs for some certain external goods, or property. Without these goods one cannot fully function in society. Property gives one a sense of security; it gives people a base from which to exercise their liberty. One always requires some form of motivation to exercise liberty and to gain happiness. That motivation is our right to property. Without property one loses the key tangible goal to strive for. By taking ones property you take ones ability to gain fulfillment. Also, without property one cannot fully contribute to society. Without property one does not contribute property taxes to the community. Without Property one cannot gain fulfillment. This leads me to my second contention

My Second Contention- The right of property is a necessity to gaining fulfillment.
As I stated in my first contention property yields the ability to self-fulfillment. This is not only backed through Aristotle’s Ethics but also through Robert Nozick’s conception of property rights. Nozick essentially expands on Aristotle’s view of property. As I stated in my First Contention people need property to make noble acts, such as serving their community by enlisting into the army, mean something. This is because people are entitled to the property they own. If they feel they have been robbed of their property by society they will not want to benefit society. Nozick argued that Individuals own themselves - their bodies, talents and abilities, labor, and by extension the fruits or products of their exercise of their talents and labor. Because people own themselves they cannot be treated by the government as a mere thing, or used against his/her will as an instrument or resource in the way an inanimate object might be. Here Nozick essentially lays down that the government cannot treat man as a means only. Just because eminent domain may, in some people’s eyes, be a good concept does not mean that the process is just. Essentially Nozick believed in two key concepts, first that a government’s main concern should always be the protection of one’s property and second that a government must never bring harm to one’s rights. A government may harm the well being of man by taking away his property, people feel unimportant when they are being robbed of the fruits of their labor. When people feel unimportant and mistreated their sense of self diminishes to a point that they can no longer gain happiness and fulfillment. Through adherence Aristotle’s Ethics, which Nozick expanded on, the government is able to act in a just way. The government must be concerned about each citizen and their welfare. Leading me to my third contention

My Third Contention- Human Welfare is decreased through eminent domain because it decreases our security. This is a basic necessity to Aristotle’s Ethics that we need security in order to maintain a happy life and gain fulfillment, this thought is also shared by such thinkers as Abraham Mallow. In Maslow’s hierarchy he lays the foundation for what is necessary in order to gain fulfillment, or what he calls Self-Actualization. Aristotle calls this state eudemonia, or happiness, he of course means fulfillment: physical, spiritual, and intellectual. This according to Aristotle is the highest goal; of course the maintenance of such a state and the gaining of such a state requires a reliable degree of security, in your persons and possessions. The use of eminent domain to promote private enterprise eliminates security in your possessions. If the state can come in and take my home--without my consent--regardless of whether or not I am compensated, security has been eliminated. I must live in constant fear that an enterprise will find my property to their liking and use the state to remove me. This is why the use of eminent domain to promote private enterprise is unjust it opens a loophole in security, a thing which cannot be circumvented, thus causing a decrease in human welfare. When determining just action one must agree that no action can be considered truly just if it harms one person for the sole purpose of benefit to another individual(s).


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