TOPIC 1: Should the government provide incentives for engineers and
professionals who provide their services to marginalized communities or
sectors of society? (Table 1 Researchers)
Incentives – financial benefits, tax breaks, grants, salary supplements, loan
assistance
Marginalized -
Opposition: The government should not provide incentives for engineers and
professionals who provide their services to marginalize communities or sectors of
society.
Table 1.1. Opposition Arguments
Possible
Opposition Main Counterargument Resolution to
Arguments (Could be used by Counterarguments
Affirmative Side)
[1] It does. Incentives are
Market Distortion –
typically smaller than those
Incentives create artificial
of the actual salary. If these
demand for professionals. [1] It does not disrupt the
incentives become more
This leads to inflating market for those
economically good for
salaries thus making it engineers because
engineers then most
harder for communities to incentives are made to be
engineers would work in
find qualified help when targeted towards specific
these causes. As a result,
incentive expires. In the long success.
hiring companies need to
run, an unsustainable
raise their salary more to
service provision can
attract employees. Or it
happen.
could happen the other
way.
[1] Instead of focusing
Temporary Compliance –
solely on providing short-
providing incentives to
term benefits and relying
professionals to work in
on incentives, sustainable
marginalized sectors is [1] Temporary service can
solutions and community-
mostly done on a short-term be seen as a compromise
driven approaches should
basis, and this may lead to to address immediate
be prioritized to create a
brief resolutions, thereby needs.
lasting positive impact and
failing to address the
address the root causes of
underlying systematic
the problems faced by the
issues.
marginalized sectors.
[1] Although it may be a
possibility, it does not
Fund Source -
guarantee that using
Government units have [1] Investing in
government funds to give
limited budgets and may not marginalized communities
incentives to engineers and
be able to allocate funds may help to prevent other
professionals will address
towards giving incentives for possible costly
these issues. Instead, they
engineers and professionals interventions like health
could be allocated more
as it may be an inefficient care crises.
effectively to address the
use of taxpayer money.
root cause of
marginalization.
Dependency &
Inauthenticity – providing
an assurance of incentives
for engineers and
professionals may raise a [1] When dealing with
sense of dependency among [1] Do you think work, authenticity or a
the marginalized authenticity is a factor passion to do the work
communities or sectors of when considering the without incentives allows
society. It may promote work done by engineers or the engineers and
short term solutions instead professionals to professionals to think of
of sustainable and self- marginalized communities ways to help these
sufficient ones. Additionally, or sectors of society? marginalized communities
there may also be an in a long-term aspect.
inauthenticity to the work
that they provide, which
questions its underlying
motive.
Potential for Corruption
Government incentives for
professionals in marginalized
communities can be a
potential for corruption. For
example, dishonest actors
[1] Even with all these
could inflate the cost of
programs in place, it will
services or create fake
not ensure that there will
projects to claim the
be no corruption. The very
incentives. This diverts [1] Audits and
state of our country is an
resources away from Whistleblower protection,
example of how rampant
genuine efforts to help Transparency and
corruption is. We have
marginalized communities. Oversight, Performance-
multiple offices and
Another scenario would be Based Funding
programs targeted to
bribery and favoritism of the
reduce corruption yet the
officials tasked with
people behind them are
distributing the incentives.
corrupt themselves.
They could be bribed to
favor certain professionals or
projects, even if they're not
the most qualified or
beneficial to the
community.
Table 1.2. Affirmative Side’s Arguments
Affirmative Side Possible Counter- Possible Rebuttals for their
Main Arguments Argument (Could Resolution to Resolutions
be used by
Counter-Argument
Opposition Side)
By providing Incentives can By tailoring While the proposed
incentives, such as exacerbate market incentives to resolution advocates
financial rewards or distortions by particular sectors for the strategic
career advancement artificially favoring such as healthcare, allocation of
opportunities, certain professions or education, incentives to
professionals are or industries over governments and address specific
encouraged to work others. By offering organizations can sectors and regions,
in underserved incentives, effectively channel it fails to consider
areas, thus governments or resources where potential drawbacks
addressing organizations may they are most and unintended
disparities in access inadvertently create needed. This consequences of
to critical services an artificial market approach allows for such an approach.
and promoting environment where a more precise Firstly, by focusing
fairness in resource professionals are allocation of incentives on select
allocation. incentivized to incentives, focusing sectors or regions,
Additionally, prioritize financial on areas where there is a risk of
ensuring that gain over genuine there is a neglecting other
essential services societal need. This pronounced skill gap important areas that
are accessible to can lead to or where critical may also require
marginalized inefficiencies as services are lacking. support. This could
communities helps professionals may By targeting specific create disparities
bridge the gap choose locations or sectors or regions, between sectors and
between privileged fields of work based targeted incentives regions,
and disadvantaged solely on the can more efficiently exacerbating
populations, availability of address disparities existing inequalities
fostering a more incentives rather and promote growth rather than
equitable society than the actual and development in promoting overall
where everyone has demand for their areas that require equity.
the chance to thrive services, resulting in additional support,
regardless of their mismatches ultimately leading to Furthermore, the
background or between supply and a more balanced emphasis on
circumstances. demand and and equitable targeted incentives
potentially leaving distribution of may lead to a
genuine needs resources and concentration of
unaddressed. opportunities. resources and talent
in certain industries
or geographic areas,
potentially crowding
out innovation and
development in
other sectors or
regions. This could
result in missed
opportunities for
growth and
diversification,
limiting the overall
resilience and
competitiveness of
the economy.
Additionally, the
effectiveness of
targeted incentives
relies heavily on
accurate
assessment and
forecasting of skill
gaps and service
needs, which can be
challenging and
subject to error.
Misallocation of
incentives based on
faulty assumptions
or incomplete data
could result in
wasted resources
and missed
opportunities to
address pressing
needs.
