General Purpose: To persuade.
Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that it is necessary for our country to have wealthy people.
Central Idea: Wealthy people are essential for three reasons: they are imperative to employment and economic growth, the structure and basis of our economy calls for there to be wealthy people, and the rich bear a significant portion of the tax burden.
Introduction
I have a question. By a show of hands, how many of you in this room woud like to be rich one day? *counts*(If there's a lot of hands)- Great, now I don't have anything to talk about for the next 7 minutes because you already agree with me. Even with that, I'll keep going just to avoid all of the awkward silence and boredom. Trying to defend rich people after all that has transpired over the last few years is not an easy task. The reason for this isn't because of a flaw in my position, but moreso because of the vitriol that is currently being aimed at what has become affectionately known as "the 1%". My intention is not to get into an ideological debate, or to argue over policy, tax breaks, or fairness. My simple premise is that rich people are necessary cogs in the machine that is our society. I cannot deny that inequality between the rich and the poor is growing, or that there are countless instances of questionable tax breaks on big corporations, or even that many rich people are profit-hungry, morally questionable bastards. However unfortunate, unfair or unappealing those characteristics may be, even assuming the worst of the worst in that realm of ideological warfare, it doesn't change one simple truth; that we need those people in our society for our economy to function. There are three reasons for this: Rich people are extremely important in terms of economic growth and employment, individual wealth is part of the core of our economic system and is an inevitable result of capitalism, and they are responsible for a significant portion of the nation's tax burden. To put it bluntly, we would be in serious trouble without any rich people. That's if we were here at all... I. Rich people are imperative to employment and economic growth. A.) Rich people own many of the businesses that employ people. 1.) Money is invested into businesses as a means of making more money because of a desire for profit. 2.) This creates a demand for labor, businesses then hire workers. a.) Workers use wages to become consumers b.) More consumers create incentive for more investment. c.) Successful businesses/investments can essentially "create" rich people which increases resources for future endeavors. B.) Wealth helps the economy grow. 1.) According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 50% of U.S. workers are employed at small businesses, many of which are not owned by rich individuals. 2.) Also according to the Administration, small business owners recieve about 75% of their funding through loans and credit often financed by banks or credit card companies owned by rich people. 3.) The rich make money off of these loans, which lets them make more investments or more loans. This grows the economy by helping create more businesses. a.) Wealth is also able to be distributed to research and development to discover and implement new technologies. b.) Technology increases efficiency, therefore increasing the size of the "economic pie". II. Our economic system is esssentially designed to create wealthy individuals. A.) The principles of Capitalism call for private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit, and competitive markets. 1.) This means individuals create goods or services and compete for profits. The system mandates that there be winners and losers. 2.) The competitive markets dictate that the businesses do not have any market power,