All their disads are non-unique – a Privatization’s inevitable internationally
ac – regional econ – florida – resource wars
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- Solves resource wars – extinction Collins 10
- ***GEORGIA 1ac – regional econ – georgia Georgia’s economy is on the brink —transportation infrastructure underpins
- The plan boosts the Georgia economy—Gwinnet and national examples proves Dodd, 11
2ac – regional econ – florida – resource wars Launch costs are the key internal link to space opportunities Coopersmith 10 (Jonathan Coopersmith Staff Writer “Obama in space: Bold but not bold enough” The Space Review April 12, 2010 http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1603/1)//twemchen The chief flaw of the president’s proposals is they do not address the key constraint limiting human and robotic exploration and exploitation of space, the high cost of reaching orbit. When I fly domestically, I pay about $2 per pound of me for a ticket. To launch a satellite into orbit costs roughly $10,000 a pound. Until that cost dramatically drops, the promise of the final frontier will remain only a promise. These high launch costs restrict access to space to those governments and corporations that can afford tens of millions of dollars to launch a satellite. Consequently, the annual total of all payloads is only a few hundred tons, the equivalent of two 747 freighter flights. The great expense to reach orbit has not only hindered past exploration, but will also restrict the future if unchanged. Imagine how many more businesses would experiment and develop applications in space if the cost of launching a satellite was only in the hundreds of thousands instead of tens of millions of dollars. Making access to space affordable will create vast economic as well as scientific opportunities. Solves resource wars – extinction Collins 10 - *Life & Environmental Science, Azabu University AND **Andromeda Inc., Italy Patrick and Adriano (“What the growth of a space tourism industry could contribute to employment, economic growth, environmental protection, education, culture and world peace,” Acta Astronautica 66 (2010) 1553–1562, Science Direct)//twemchen The major source of social friction, including international friction, has surely always been unequal access to resources. People fight to control the valuable resources on and under the land, and in and under the sea. The natural resources of Earth are limited in quantity, and economically accessible resources even more so. As the population grows, and demand grows for a higher material standard of living, industrial activity grows exponentially. The threat of resources becoming scarce has led to the concept of ‘‘Resource Wars’’. Having begun long ago with wars to control the gold and diamonds of Africa and South America, and oil in the Middle East, the current phase is at centre stage of world events today [37]. A particular danger of ‘‘resource wars’’ is that, if the general public can be persuaded to support them, they may become impossible to stop as resources become increasingly scarce. Many commentators have noted the similarity of the language of US and UK government advocates of ‘‘war on terror’’ to the language of the novel ‘‘1984’’ which describes a dystopian future of endless, fraudulent war in which citizens are reduced to slaves. 7.1. Expansion into near-Earth space is the only alternative to endless ‘‘resource wars’’ As an alternative to the ‘‘resource wars’’ already devastating many countries today, opening access to the unlimited resources of near-Earth space could clearly facilitate world peace and security. The US National Security Space Office, at the start of its report on the potential of space-based solar power (SSP) published in early 2007, stated: ‘‘Expanding human populations and declining natural resources are potential sources of local and strategic conflict in the 21st Century, and many see energy as the foremost threat to national security’’ [38]. The report ended by encouraging urgent research on the feasibility of SSP: ‘‘Considering the timescales that are involved, and the exponential growth of population and resource pressures within that same strategic period, it is imperative that this work for ‘‘drilling up’’ vs. drilling down for energy security begins immediately’’ [38]. Although the use of extra-terrestrial resources on a substantial scale may still be some decades away, it is important to recognise that simply acknowledging its feasibility using known technology is the surest way of ending the threat of resource wars. That is, if it is assumed that the resources available for human use are limited to those on Earth, then it can be argued that resource wars are inescapable [22,37]. If, by contrast, it is assumed that the resources of space are economically accessible, this not only eliminates the need for resource wars, it can also preserve the benefits of civilisation which are being eroded today by ‘‘resource war-mongers’’, most notably the governments of the ‘‘Anglo-Saxon’’ countries and their ‘‘neo-con’’ advisers. It is also worth noting that the $1 trillion that these have already committed to wars in the Middle-East in the 21st century is orders of magnitude more than the public investment needed to aid companies sufficiently to start the commercial use of space resources. Industrial and financial groups which profit from monopolistic control of terrestrial supplies of various natural resources, like those which profit from wars, have an economic interest in protecting their profitable situation. However, these groups’ continuing profits are justified neither by capitalism nor by democracy: they could be preserved only by maintaining the pretence that use of space resources is not feasible, and by preventing the development of low-cost space travel. Once the feasibility of low-cost space travel is understood, ‘‘resource wars’’ are clearly foolish as well as tragic. A visiting extra-terrestrial would be pityingly amused at the foolish antics of homo sapiens using longrange rockets to fight each other over dwindling terrestrial resources—rather than using the same rockets to travel in space and have the use of all the resources they need! 7.2. High return in safety from extra-terrestrial settlement Investment in low-cost orbital access and other space infrastructure will facilitate the establishment of settlements on the Moon, Mars, asteroids and in man-made space structures. In the first phase, development of new regulatory infrastructure in various Earth orbits, including property/usufruct rights, real estate, mortgage financing and insurance, traffic management, pilotage, policing and other services will enable the population living in Earth orbits to grow very large. Such activities aimed at making near-Earth space habitable are the logical extension of humans’ historical spread over the surface of the Earth. As trade spreads through near-Earth space, settlements are likely to follow, of which the inhabitants will add to the wealth of different cultures which humans have created in the many different environments in which they live. Success of such extra-terrestrial settlements will have the additional benefit of reducing the danger of human extinction due to planet-wide or cosmic accidents [27]. These horrors include both man-made disasters such as nuclear war, plagues or growing pollution, and natural disasters such as super-volcanoes or asteroid impact. It is hard to think of any objective that is more important than preserving peace. Weapons developed in recent decades are so destructive, and have such horrific, long-term side-effects that their use should be discouraged as strongly as possible by the international community. Hence, reducing the incentive to use these weapons by rapidly developing the ability to use space-based resources on a large scale is surely equally important [11,16]. The achievement of this depends on low space travel costs which, at the present time, appear to be achievable only through the development of a vigorous space tourism industry. ***GEORGIA 1ac – regional econ – georgia Georgia’s economy is on the brink—transportation infrastructure underpins its inability to revamp Semuels, 15—staff writer at the Atlantic and reporter for Los Angeles Times (Alana, 1/2/15, “What’s Wrong with Georgia?”, The Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/whats-wrong-with-georgia/384101/)// state's laissez-faire approach to policy. GRIFFIN, Ga.—Throughout the economic downturn and subsequent recovery, there have been some usual twemchen While many other states are recovering, Georgia's unemployment rate has risen. Some blame the suspects when it comes to the most pitiful state in monthly unemployment figures. For awhile, Michigan took the prize for highest unemployment rate in the country, until Nevada knocked it off its perch in May of 2010. Nevada then held the title for most of the next three years, sometimes sharing the honor with California, until it ceded the top (more accurately, the bottom) spot to Rhode Island in December 2013. But now, as the economy picks up steam, and consumer sentiment rises to its highest levels since 2007, a new state keeps appearing at the top of the unemployment list. Georgia, home to Fortune 500 heavyweights such as Home Depot, UPS, and Coca-Cola, had the highest unemployment rate in the nation in August, September, and October. With a November rate of 7.2 percent, the state was narrowly edged out by Mississippi’s 7.3 percent (December statistics won’t come out until mid-January). This may seem surprising, since Georgia was named the best state to do business in both 2014 and 2013 by Site Selection magazine, largely because of its workforce-training program and low tax rates. Nathan Deal, the state’s GOP governor, handily won reelection in November against Jimmy Carter’s grandson by speaking about Georgia as a job magnet. But those who follow the state’s economy say the state’s troubling economic figures are directly related to Georgia’s attempts to paint itself as a good state for corporations. “This is what a state looks like when you have a hands-off, laissez-faire approach to the economy,” said Michael Wald, a former Bureau of Labor Statistics economist in Atlanta. “Georgia is basically a low-wage, low-tax, low-service state, that’s the approach they’ve been taking for a very long time.” The nation's unemployment rate in November, by contrast, was 5.8 percent, which was also the November jobless rate of Georgia's neighbor and occasional rival, North Carolina. The unemployment rate in Georgia has risen, while in other once-troubled states, it continues to fall. (Data from BLS) Governor Deal has emphasized time and again that he believes it is the role of government to get out of the way and let the private sector stimulate the economy. Georgia was among the first states to cut back the duration of unemployment benefits available to its residents to 18 weeks from 26. The state has slashed $8.3 billion from public-school funding since 2003 and passed eligibility requirements for a state financial-aid program that caused a dramatic decline in the number of students in technical colleges (some of those requirements have since been rolled back). The state also passed a sweeping tax-reform bill in 2012 that eliminated some sales taxes and broadened exemptions for the agricultural industry that small towns and counties say have wreaked havoc on their revenues. Some counties are seeing unemployment rates that indicate the recession is far from over, including Chattahoochee, with an unemployment rate of 14.4 percent and Telfair, with a jobless rate of 13.3 percent. Areas surrounding Atlanta are faring better, with Fulton County, where Atlanta is located, posting an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent, and DeKalb seeing joblessness drop to 6.8 percent. “This may be a good place for companies, but not for people actually looking for work." But even some areas not far from the city are still struggling. They include the town of Griffin, located in Spalding County, a one-time, textile- manufacturing hub where the unemployment rate in October was 9 percent. Now, workers are tearing down the old factories and shopping plazas along the road from Atlanta are empty, with no trace of the stores once located there. Griffin residents such as Richard Joiner say they haven't seen much improvement in the economy. Joiner, 46, worked for two decades as a machine operator in the field of plastic extrusion. When he got laid off during the recession, he found a job packing ready-made salads, but then work there slowed down too. Joiner did what economists say workers like him need to do to get ahead in this economy—he went back to school for video and film production, aware that shows such as the Walking Dead were increasingly filming and producing in towns like his. But then the state changed the rules for unemployment benefits and Joiner lost his source of income, so he was forced to drop out of school and seek work. Without any money or prospects, he was evicted from his apartment, so he was forced to move in with his mother. His grown children had to find somewhere else to live. He has no car, so he walks three miles to the Griffin Career Center to search for a job on the computers there. Joiner still owes $13,000 in student loans, and hasn’t been able to find any sort of work. “This may be a good place for companies, but not for people actually looking for work,” he told me, sitting in the waiting room of the Career Center. “Companies may come here for the tax breaks, but they’re not actually bringing jobs for the people who live here.” What’s frustrating about Joiner’s situation is that he’s doing everything right—going back to school, trying a new industry, looking for work wherever he can find it. But without the resources that have long been in place for people like him, he’s struggling. Many other students in Georgia have dropped out of school after changes to funding for higher education, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. Changes to the lottery-funded HOPE grant program in 2011 led to a decline of 38,000 students enrolled at the state’s technical schools, said Alan Essig, the institute’s director (John Oliver has recently explored the folly of using the state lotteries to pay for education). Even without scholarships, higher education in Georgia is getting more expensive. Tuition and fees at Georgia public universities have increased 67 percent since 2008; at technical colleges, they’ve increased 65 percent, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. The decline in education funding may already be directly impacting the state's economy. In December, the state High Demand Career Initiative released a report finding that some employers, including Home Depot, weren't able to find enough high-skilled workers to fill available jobs. They were forced to hire out of state, the report found. Only about 42 percent of Georgia's young adults have earned a college credential, although more than 60 percent of jobs in the state will require a college certificate or degree. “It’s a misconception that these so-called business-friendly policies are closely related to stronger economic growth,” said Wesley Tharpe, an analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. “A state’s economy depends on an educated workforce, transportation infrastructure, public safety, reliable street cleaning, and snow removal.” Transportation is a problem in Georgia, too. The state ranks 49th in the nation in per capita transportation funding, and Atlanta’s commutes are famously terrible. The state could have borrowed funds for transportation improvements, said Wald, but instead decided in 2012 to ask voters to pass an increase in sales tax to fund transportation projects. It was defeated handily at the ballot box. An abandoned mall in Griffin, Georgia (Alana Semuels) Georgia isn’t the only state to find that lowering taxes in an effort to jumpstart the economy can backfire. Indeed, one of the biggest issues dividing Democrats and Republicans during the recession was whether the Keynesian approach of increasing government spending in a recession best stimulates the economy, or whether governments should get out of the way and allow businesses to do the work. Kansas passed sweeping tax cuts in 2012, only to see protests over its low levels of education funding and a debt downgrade to boot. Ohio did away with its estate tax and scaled back income taxes, forcing many local governments to reduce services. Tax cuts heralded by Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin have led to budget shortfalls that have even some Republican legislators worried. “Sometimes ideological experiments bring unintended outcomes," Oklahoma Treasurer Ken Miller told the Wall Street Journal in June, about Kansas’s experiment. In Georgia, those unintended outcomes have reverberated through small, rural towns that traditionally support conservative fiscal policies. “We’re desperately awaiting recovery—we’re still not back to 2008 revenue levels,” said Chris Hobby, the city manager of Bainbridge, right on the Florida border. “We were climbing back towards those levels, and then in 2013, when these tax exemptions went into place, you can see our revenue just fall off the cliff.” The exemptions he’s talking about were part of H.B. 386, passed by the state legislature in 2012. The law replaced an annual car tax with a one-time title tax, which is paid when a car is bought. It also eliminated sales tax on energy used in manufacturing, and expanded a program that allowed the agriculture industry to avoid paying sales tax on a variety of products. Bainbridge has had to put aside repairs to a 60-year-old elementary school. The city employs just 141 people, as opposed to 185 in 2008 and collected fewer taxes last year than it did in 2010. It was forced to raise property taxes for the first time in 30 years, and has narrowed its focus to pothole repair rather than road repaving. “I think the tax reform was made with all the best intentions,” Hobby said. “But it has really created a crisis in the rural parts of the state.” Empty stores along South Hill Street in Griffin (Alana Semuels) The story is the same in many other rural areas: Washington, Georgia, disbanded its police force earlier this year because of budget issues, and in June, Valdosta raised property taxes for the first time since 1992, after cutting 5 percent of its workforce and reducing spending on transportation. “In many rural areas, this is going to prolong coming out of the recession,” said Amy Henderson, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Municipal Association, which calculated that some rural counties in the south had seen sales-tax decreases of more than 15 percent between 2012 and 2013. To be sure, there are some positive pieces to the Georgia economy. The state has gained 93,900 jobs since the beginning of the year, not that many fewer than the 110,700 added by rival North Carolina, which has only a slightly smaller population. Industries such as retail, logistics, and hospitality are adding jobs at a rapid clip. And some of the movement in the unemployment rate can be attributed to the state's growing labor force. Georgia had 4.8 million people in its labor force in June, an all-time high, though that number has shrunk in recent months as some people gave up looking for work. And many industries are still struggling. Georgia was hit hard by the housing bust: The state employs 30 percent fewer construction workers than it did during the peak and 20 percent fewer manufacturing workers than it did a decade ago. The state government continues to shed jobs: down 2,400 from a year ago, and down 14,700 from the peak in 2008. So while some industries are adding positions, they aren’t growing quickly enough to make up for industries that have disappeared. A few years back, I visited a company in Griffin that was going to benefit from a $50 billion pledge made by Walmart to buy more products manufactured in the United States. The company, 1888 Mills, had won a contract to supply their Georgia-made towels to 1,200 Walmart stores. But the factory the company showed me was mostly machines, with a few people to run them. The Walmart contract created only about 35 jobs, if that, at 1888 Mills. Even if manufacturing does come back to Georgia, and to Griffin, it won’t create many jobs. The company illustrates the one-two punch Georgia is facing. The economy has lost industries, like manufacturing and construction that may never return the way they once were. But programs that could help retrain workers or send them back to school have been scaled back. Counties still figuring out how to make up for that lost tax revenue are facing even more revenue declines. Candy Swopes, 47, has wanted to go back to school for as long as she can remember. But things kept coming up. After she had her daughter, she found work for a company that manufactured audio equipment for cars. When the company moved to Mexico, though, she lost her job. She found work to pay the bills: as a housekeeper at a Super 8, packing boxes for Toys R Us, helping manufacture plastic wrap. But eventually her employer would tell her that things had slowed down and that they didn’t need her anymore. She finally scraped together enough money to go back to school to study electrical technology, but then her financial aid ran out, so she went to a temp agency to find a job. Now, she’s trying to find enough money to complete her schooling and to send her 20-year-old daughter to culinary school. Both have heard stories of people saddled by student-loan debt, and don't want to take out big loans. But Swopes still can’t find a steady job so they haven't come up with tuition money yet. She’s looking though. “I told her, ‘You have to go to school, no ifs, ands or buts about it,’” Swopes told me in the quiet of the Griffin Career Center. “I don’t want her to struggle like I’m struggling.” On Griffin’s main thoroughfare, others seem to be in a similar bind. The street is dotted with bright signs advertising “Space for Lease.” Lori Bean, who owns a jam company, said sales in Georgia this year have been half of what they were last year. “We’ve learned to live with it,” said Burt Crapo, the founder of Agape Computers, one of the businesses doing well in Griffin. But Crapo’s wife works for the county in community development, and hasn’t gotten a raise for years. Her health-insurance premiums are going up, and every now and then, she hears rumors about impending furloughs. People in Griffin are still cautious about spending, said Tony Sharp, who owns a jewelry store in town, even though gas prices are low. "There's not a single thing in here that people have to have," he said, gesturing along the long rows of jewelry in his store. "Things are better, but they're not exactly as they were." Crapo knows it might be a long time before things get back to normal in Georgia. A few restaurants may be doing well on the street, but he knows too well that many others aren’t. Next to him, a framing store recently closed up shop. A handwritten sign lurks in the door, starting to fade: “Gone Out of Business." The plan boosts the Georgia economy—Gwinnet and national examples proves Dodd, 11—vice president of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation; an independent think tank that proposes practical, market-oriented approaches to public policy to improve the lives of Georgians (Benita M., 8/5/11, "Airport Privatization Could Take Off", Georgia Public Policy Foundation, www.georgiapolicy.org/2011/08/airport-privatization-could-take-off/)//twemchen For years, Georgia has been trying to site an airport to supplement Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest passenger airport in the world. Suggestions have been all over the map, from Dawsonville to Macon to Chattanooga. Now a plan to make a Gwinnett County airport a regional relief valve – by privatizing it – finally holds promise. The 600-acre Briscoe Field is a general aviation airport about 37 miles northeast of Atlanta and a mile outside Lawrenceville. Owned by Gwinnett, its 6,001-foot runway and parallel taxiway can handle light general aviation and most corporate jet aircraft. The airport handled 83,458 aircraft operations and served as a base for 236 aircraft in the most recent 12-month reporting period ending March 2009. Its 2010 total economic impact was about $79 million, with $47 million in direct impact. Under the 15-year-old Airport Privatization Pilot Program, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can select up to five airports for privatization. Despite the program’s age, the privatization process has not been easy. A deal to privatize Chicago’s Midway Airport fell through in 2009. This week, Chicago asked the FAA for a sixth extension on its application. In September 2009, the FAA accepted the city of New Orleans’ preliminary application for Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. In October 2010, the airport withdrew from the program. In December 2009, the FAA accepted the preliminary application for Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The airport, the busiest in the Caribbean, continues to actively pursue privatization. Outside Miami, Hendry County Airglades Airport’s preliminary application was accepted last year. The FAA gave preliminary approval to Briscoe’s application in May 2010 and the Gwinnett County Commission is expected to announce a request for proposals soon. Qualified private investors must deal with local political power struggles and neighbors’ concerns, win support of airport carriers and cope with the fallout of the economic downturn. In Briscoe Field, Gwinnett County faces a promising opportunity and the potential to become home to a secondary commercial airport, an origination-to-destination airport. At Hartsfield-Jackson, more than 75 percent of passengers are taking connecting flights, just “passing through” the airport. Opponents cite the downside of Briscoe’s privatization as increased traffic congestion, more flights and noise, all of which they say would hurt property values nearby. But a recent study found that no homes would be affected by noise from additional flights. That study, commissioned by Hartsfield-Jackson for the FAA to seek out a reliever airport, also dismissed Briscoe as an unsuitable site. The study maintained that the runway was too short; the airport’s proximity to Atlanta’s would interfere with Hartsfield-Jackson’s flight path and it would cost $2.2 billion to upgrade. Given that Briscoe’s proposed 10-gate commercial service would relieve Hartsfield-Jackson, not replace it, and serve aircraft no larger than 737s, the study’s assumptions – including a 9,000-foot runway– appear to be costly overkill. Proponents see the privatization and scheduled service approach as an enormous economic boost for Gwinnett and the region, and evidence from across the nation indicates they are correct. Privatization will take the cost of operating the airport off taxpayer books and create a positive revenue stream for Gwinnett County, whose shrinking tax digest shows no signs of improving soon. While Gwinnett maintains its AAA bond rating, it owes nearly $160 million, making it the county with the third-highest debt in Georgia, according to Moody’s. The FAA pilot program streamlines privatization and enables the expansion to commercial scheduled service, leading to growth in jobs and related industries at and around the airport. Tourism could grow through international flights. Now, international passengers headed to Briscoe must first land and clear customs at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport. Briscoe falls outside the current Port of Atlanta customs clearance boundary, which was drawn in 1962, when Atlanta’s population was smaller than the current population of Gwinnett. Three companies have expressed interest in Briscoe’s privatization and commercial scheduled service. Propeller Airports Briscoe Field, Inc. appears the likely successful bidder. Its parent company’s executives and advisors have lengthy experience in the aviation industry. Transportation expert Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation notes that the company claims access to $4 billion in investment capital, “which is plausible, given the $100-plus billion amassed by various infrastructure investment funds over the last several years.” A recent Economist magazine article focused on airport management and “grim” airports. It quoted Andreas Schimm of Airports Council International, an umbrella group, saying that in the past airports were “administered rather than managed” to serve state-owned airlines. “Governments now try to run airports on commercial lines, but few do it well. Privatization could help.” It can help in more ways than one, for Gwinnett and metro Atlanta. Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 1.61 Mb. Share with your friends:
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