Cedar Hill Prep School

Hello, My name is Vaishnavi Bhall and I support the idea that European nations should not be required to accept refugees from Africa and the Middle East.

Assertion: Migrants coming to Europe will cause tax increases and cause economic chaos.

Reasoning: Many refugees depend on welfare provided by the state and don't contribute to the local economy in the short term.

Evidence: According to Reuters, Finland's government proposed increasing taxes for a ten fold increase in refugees expected to arrive this year.

Source: Express.co.uk

Assertion: Diversity brought to Europe by refugees hurts civic life

Reasoning: The greater the diversity is in a community the fewer the people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects.

Evidence: The study, the largest ever on civic engagement in America, found that virtually all measures of civic health are lower in more diverse settings.

Source: Boston.com or The Boston Globe

Hello, My name is Vaishnavi Bhalla. And, I support the idea that European nations should be required to accept refugees from Africa and the Middle East.

Assertion: Taking refugees is not only a challenge but an opportunity.

Reasoning: Refugees who are educated bring employable jobs that will help ease the labor squeeze in Europe. It will also fill up low skilled jobs.

Evidence: Germany is Europe's biggest economy with aging population and half million unfilled jobs which can be filled by refugees.

Refugees are more likely to be entrepreneurial and enjoy higher rates of successful business ventures compared to natives. Research has shown that annual earning growth among refugees living in the US has outpaced pay increases among other immigrants.

Source: NY Times and US News

Assertion: Migrants will have positive impact on the economy.

Reasoning: Refugees bring important source of demand for locally produced services funded from own savings and income.

Evidence: Currently, in Germany foreigners pay far more taxes than they take out in benefits. There has been a positive impact on the Lebanese economy even though a lot of Syrian refugees took shelter in Lebanon. Turkey's economy is growing consistently throughout the refugees inflow.

Source: Huffington Post, Brooking.edu

Assertion: Diversity is for great nations

Reasoning: With extra diversity countries have social , cultural and economic benefits. Diversity increases economic development and homogeneity slows it down.

Evidence: There is a lot of evidence that geographical openness and cultural diversity and tolerance are the key drivers of economic progress. They provide intellectual, technological and artistic evolution.

Source: Citylab.com

Hello, my name is Vaishnavi Bhalla and I support the idea that the government has failed to rebuild the gulf coast after Hurricane Katrina.

Assertion: The redevelopment after Katrina cut off opportunities for thousands of families to return to the city and added to the exclusion of African American families of New Orleans.

Reasoning: As a result of Katrina and discriminatory rebuilding process the low income groups have not been able to return to New Orleans.

Evidence: People of color now make smaller percentage of New Orleans than they did before the storm.

Source: Bill Quigley, Social Justice Advocacy.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Vaishnavi Bhalla. I support the idea that the government did a good job rebuilding the gulf coast after Hurricane Katrina.

Assertion: New Orleans has better infrastructure now.

Reasoning: The government repaired and rebuilt roads, schools, hospitals etc. Smarter and stronger infrastructure was built to protect against future storms.

Evidence: FEMA has provided 5.2 billion dollars to Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida for thousands of public works projects.

Assertion: The government rebuild homes and provided an affordable rent for low income families.

Reasoning: The Americorps and Senior Corps volunteers have assisted more than 3 million Katrina survivors including the rebuilding or repairing of 15400 homes. Today 98% of these apartments are fully restored and families are back in their homes.

Evidence: In the last 10 years, CNCS has invested more than 33 million dollars to support volunteers in Louisiana and Mississippi. HUD has set aside 20 million dollars in community development block grand disaster recovery funding.

Source: The Whitehouse Press Office Release

Assertion: The school system in New Orleans is much better than before.

Reasoning: The charter schools took over the failing New Orleans public school system and today, it is nationally recognized as a potential model for urban school system.

Evidence: The city's high school graduation has increased to 73% last year from 54% in 2005. The percentage of seniors attending college has increased to more than half of all seniors from a third a decade ago.

Source: New York Times

Thank you.

My name is Vaishnavi Bhalla and I am against the proposition. My arguments are as follows:

(1) Prices would go up because you would have to round to the nearest nickel. For example, price of a pizza slice that costs $1.97, would more likely cost $2.00. And those little costs would quickly add up.

(2) Many Americans love the penny. Old and rare pennies are prized collectibles. A 2012 survey found that two thirds of adults want to keep the coin.

Source: A Gallop Poll in 1990 and Opinion Research Corporation surveys conducted in 1995, 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2012

(3) The penny also helps charitable causes, allowing America's charities to raise millions of dollars. Many charities, for instance, profit from pennies.

Penny drives—campaigns that ask for donations of pennies—are often big successes.

Source: www.pennies.org

Hello my name is is Vaishnavi Bhalla and i believe that the penny should be abolished.

(1) It costs more to make a penny than what than what the penny is actually worth. A penny costs 1.7 cents to produce which includes the cost of the metal (pennies are made of zinc and copper) and running the Mint, including paying the people who work there.

Source: A Wall Street Article - http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/12/15/just-how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-penny/

(2) These days, there’s nothing you can buy for a penny. Few vending machines accept them, and using them to pay for pretty much anything is just a hassle. (Imagine hauling a thousand pennies to the movie theater for a ticket instead of a $10 bill.) Do we really need pennies at all?

(3) Canada has successfully transitioned away from penny in physical transactions. It is not the first country to have done away with its smallest unit of currency: in the past few decades Britain, France, Israel and Spain, among others, have done the same. The Canadian penny has been eliminated because it is a waste of both money and time. Inflation has reduced its purchasing power by 95% since it was first minted domestically in 1908.

Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/ 2013/02/economist-explains-why-canada-killed-penny

Hello my name is Vaishnavi Bhalla and i do not agree that cigarettes should be illegal.

(1) It is not necessarily unhealthy (1R) People should have choices and be able to make their own values. (1E) A new study by Yeshiva University’s Institute for Aging Research, shows that people who made it to the ripe age of 95 were just as likely as their shorter-lived peers to engage in the kinds of lifestyle habits that researchers deem unhealthy: eating fried foods, drinking, smoking and failing to exercise. Almost 30% of the centenarian women had smoked (over 100 cigarettes) in their lifetime, while 26.2% of the comparison women did. Smoking rates were 60% for centenarian men and 75% for comparison men.

(2) Cigarettes are not necessarily addictive. (2R) One can wean off the addiction by using nicotine base products.example:nicotine gum. (2E) Based on a report published by harvard medical school titled "overcoming addiction paths toward recovery"

(3) Second hand smoking can be drastically reduced (3R) Smoke free rules can be set like not smoking in house, car or in front of kids, prohibiting smoking in public facilities such as schools, hospitals, airports,etc. (3E) According to national cancer institute and CDC [Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention) website: at www.cdc.gov/tobacco

Hello,my name is Vaishnavi and I agree that cigarettes should be made illegal.

(1) First of all smoking is a very horrible thing to do - (1R) It is very unhealthy. (1E) Statistics show that smoking takes away 10 years away from a person's life.

(2) Smoking is highly addictive - (2R) People can't stop doing it. (2E) Because of this their are 450,000 premature deaths every year. Approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced globally each year and are smoked by more than 1/6 of the population by the world.

(3) 2nd hand smoking is very dangerous for people who don't want to smoke and want to be healthy. (3R) 2nd hand smoking can cause stroke and lung cancer! (3E) A breakdown of recently reported data showed some populations were still being affected more than others by 2nd hand smoke!

(4) Also if a pregnant lady smokes it will affect her baby! (4R) When a pregnant lady smokes it is hard for the baby to breathe. (4E) Smoking doubles the risk of stillbirth!

Smoking is very dangerous and should be made illegal. Thank You