Instigator / Pro
0
1360
rating
19
debates
0.0%
won
Topic
#1895

As a businessman, Donald Trump distinguished himself with endless bankruptcies

Status
Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics
Better arguments
0
21
Better sources
0
14
Better legibility
0
7
Better conduct
0
7

After 7 votes and with 49 points ahead, the winner is...

Barney
Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Standard
Number of rounds
2
Time for argument
Two days
Max argument characters
10,000
Voting period
Two weeks
Point system
Multiple criterions
Voting system
Open
Contender / Con
49
1810
rating
49
debates
100.0%
won
Description

Given the opportunity, Trump might also bankrupt the United States.

Round 1
Pro
#1
Forfeited
Con
#2
My opponent has submitted the following argument via the comment section:
I put nothing past Donald Trump. It wouldn't surprise me if he declares bankruptcy invalidating all US debt.

Trump only cares about himself. If he can profit from a bankruptcy, he will do it.

Rebuttals:
"It wouldn't surprise me if he declares bankruptcy invalidating all US debt."
Irrelevant. As much as many would praise such a policy of debt abolition in these troubled times.

"Trump only cares about himself"
Irrelevant. I don't need to prove he cares about anything, as that is not the topic at hand. This is a red herring at best [1].

"If he can profit from a bankruptcy, he will do it."
Irrelevant. What he would hypothetically do, has no baring on what distinguished him as a businessman.


My Case:
No personal bankruptcies
The topic refers to "himself," meaning the "endless bankruptcies" should be impacting him. If endlessly bankrupt, it would be self evident by him living on the street or couch surfing, instead of living at at the single most well known address in the world of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

The fact is he has never been bankrupted. The lowest his wealth has ever been estimated to fall was to $150 million [2]; when if any of us had 1% of that, we would never have to work another day in our lives.

Comparatively, many other billionaires have become truly bankrupt [3].

Few businesses bankruptcies
The Trump Group was taken over by Donald Trump in 1971, which he lead until 2017. In those 46 years, only six out of about 500 of the companies he owns filed for bankruptcy [4] . Were it even one per year it might be defining, as is, that's an abysmally low rate of bankruptcy for businesses. In fact of new businesses, only 25% survive even 15 years [5]. This means as a businessman he is literally distinguished for the opposite of what the resolution claims.


Sources:
  1. https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Red_herring
  2. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/weve-been-trying-figure-out-how-much-trump-worth-20-years/349875/
  3. https://www.businessinsider.com/rich-billionaires-who-declared-bankruptcy-2019-7
  4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trump_Organization
  5. https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1010/top-6-reasons-new-businesses-fail.aspx
Round 2
Pro
#3
Forfeited
Con
#4
As previously stated: "as a businessman [Donald Trump] is literally distinguished for the opposite of what the resolution claims."