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Jazmine Ibarra

Elena Jurado

Government & Civics

9 March 2021

Activity: Debatable Claims

Arguable/Debatable claims about the government or U.S. Society:

1) Women should be paid just as much as men

In 2018, a ​woman​ working full time earned 81.6 cents for every dollar a ​man​ working full time

earned on average. Additionally, ​women's​ median annual earnings were $9,766 less than ​men's​,

according to the ​most​ recent available data from the ​US​ Census Bureau (​payscale.com​).

2) Racial discrimination (ex. Hate crimes and violence) among races should be addressed

According to ​bbc.com​, hate crimes and violence against Asian Americans have been on the rise

and are not shown via the media, when they should be. Asian Americans make up “Over six million

Asian Americans live in California, according to the latest population estimates, by far the most in any US

state. They make up more than 15% of residents in the state” (​bbc.com​). Asian Americans are most

prominently found as healthcare/medical workers, doctors, lawyers, scientists, store/shop/restaurant

owners, and more, but they are also human. They also have families of their own and they are being

called racial slurs, making less money, being killed, and suffering in silence. For example, “The advocacy

group Stop AAPI Hate said it received ​more than 2,800 reports of hate incidents​ directed at Asian

Americans nationwide last year. The group set up its online self-reporting tool at the start of the

pandemic” (​bbc.com​).
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Source: ​bbc.com

3) Guns are not inherently bad.​ They don’t shoot because they don’t want to, they shoot and kill

only because of the person who is choosing to use the gun.

4) Plastic bags should be banned​ because they are killing not only marine life, but the beauty of

our planet. Plastic is filling up our oceans, rivers, lakes, and our planet. Plastic bags are

sometimes mistaken for food by animals such as seagulls, turtles, and other marine life. Plastic

bags have contributed to the death of 100,000 marine animals annually (​biologicaldiversity.org​).

A lot of packaging material is plastic, specifically 40% of plastics are used as packaging globally

(​yaleclimateconnections.org​). Not only does this contribute to killing animals, but also our planet.

5) People should be fined for littering or charged with community service.​ I am aware that there

is already a $1000 fine for littering, but it seems as if this isn’t doing anything. I think that people

should also be charged with community service along with the fine, so they are also helping to

clean our freeways, sidewalks, fields, etc. We should be keeping our home clean and treating it

with care. According to ​litteritcostsyou.org​, “​9 billion tons of litter ends up in the ocean every

year. ​$11.5 billion​ is spent every year to clean up litter.​” So, not only does littering cost you

money to pay for the fine, but it also costs a lot of money to clean it up. This means that people

should not litter. It’s better for you, your wallet, the government’s wallet, plants, animals, and

most of all, the world.