Instigator / Pro
0
1511
rating
18
debates
38.89%
won
Topic
#5370

I think that the Aztecs knew what they were talking about.

Status
Finished

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

Winner & statistics
Winner
0
1

After 1 vote and with 1 point ahead, the winner is...

Benjamin
Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Standard
Number of rounds
4
Time for argument
Two days
Max argument characters
5,000
Voting period
One month
Point system
Winner selection
Voting system
Open
Contender / Con
1
1774
rating
95
debates
77.37%
won
Description

My proposal: Politicians should be contractually required to kill themselves at the end of their term.
You win this debate if you prove that my proposal would bring about more harm than good.

Also, the Aztecs did not actually sacrifice their rulers in times of hardship. So the title of this debate is technically clickbait.

Criterion
Pro
Tie
Con
Points
Winner
1 point(s)
Reason:

Pro argues that this proposal will ensure that politicians are mostly unselfish people. Con responds that this would mean that society loses its 125,000 most heroic people per year. The cost of this system seems very measurable, since 125,000 people are dying that likely would have contributed to society anyway even if not as politicians. As well as needing to find 125,000 new people every year seems very unfeasible, as Con points out.

Maybe if Pro's system created an ideal government, it would outweigh all of these issues, but they spend most of their time on the defensive. I don't see much from Pro supporting their claim that this will make the government better aside from claiming that it will. Con does seem to agree somewhat that this system will recruit patriotic people, but patriotic is not the only skill required for politicians.

So even if I grant that this system will make selfless people politicians, the harms are more clear and straightforward than the benefits.