Opinion Assignment for the Social Security Game

Writing Assignment

Before the game starts in class, write a guest opinion column for a newspaper explaining why you favor or do not favor any particular social insurance proposal. You do not have to cover all of the proposals in one article; each member of a faction will write an article about the one issue they have focused on.

After the game, write a guest opinion column for a newspaper explaining why you voted the way you did.

Your argument should be based on quantitative claims about the costs or benefits, rather than on political or philosophical grounds. While opinion columns in reality do not usually have graphs or tables with them, you may include one or two graphs or short tables if you feel they would help make your point.

Other people may read your arguments and write a rebuttal, so be sure to support your claims and try to anticipate the rebuttals that you will face. Also, if you try to twist language so far that it becomes inaccurate (e.g. incorrectly mixing up "percent" instead of "percentage point", or vice versa, or failing to indicate whether you are speaking in nominal or real dollars), you will probably be called out on it.

Aim for a word count of 500 to 750 words. Your article should have a title or headline to run with it.

Example Opinion articles

• an opinion from the LA Times
• a Newsweek article. It is about 770 words, so it's longer than yours will be. And yours should have a few more numbers in it. Also, this one doesn't come across as particularly partisan. If you do a little research (wikipedia!) on the author, he has been fairly active for liberal causes.
• the Detroit Free Press had an opinion in favor of the Michigan Earned Income Tax Credit, running right next to an opinion against it. In Favor, and Against.
• An article by Senator Bernie Sanders, Feb. 14, 2011

Writing Advice

• at Fairleigh Dickinson University, or local copy
• at Duke University or local copy
• at DePaul University or local copy
• at the Univ. of Washington or local copy

Other Notes

• You don't have to use every number we came up with--feel free to choose the ones you want to make your point (using all the numbers might just dilute your argument)
• You can use outside research, as long as you cite your source. Be sure to limit yourself to reliable sources--something that comes from a .edu page is probably more reliable than andrewross.com or socialsecurityatemydog.com; in between are various "think-tanks" and institutes that might have a general political view that biases the data they present.
• You can modify the numbers we used in our spreadsheets. For example, if you think working 40 years and being retired for 10 is unrealistic, you can change those numbers. If you think it's unrealistic to live on 45% of your pre-retirement income, run the numbers to see what would happen if you increased or decreased it. Everything we did was in real terms, not nominal. But if you want to scare someone with how much things will cost in the future, you could put them in nominal terms.
• MS Word has a word-count feature to help you figure out if you're at the right length. Don't worry if it's a few words over or under the limit.
• You can copy a graph or portion of a table from Excel and paste it into Word. Plan to not include any .xls-type files in your submission.
• Plan to submit your work electronically, rather than on paper.