the handicapped should not be eligible to recieve any benefits from the government, and/or society

" My opponent says that accommodations are good" Accommodations from which the giver gains more than they lose. As in, ramps instead of or in addition to stairs for businesses with a broad customer base, or courthouses, etc. " I would like to provide another principle which this country idealizes. Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of happiness. The principle that my opponent provided is aimed more towards economics, where the principle that I provided is one which idealizes social equality and opportunity." Actually, the principle you provided offers nothing of the sort. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, quite simply, lead to leaving decisions about accommodations (ABOUT ECONOMICS, you'll note, since accommodations are GOODS and SERVICES) to private citizens-- who will likely decide things on exactly the principle I mentioned. " We as a country value living life to its fullest extent, which is why we provide disability checks" Disability checks? Money forcibly extorted from slaves by government agents, so that those people can't live life to their fullest extent, provided to accommodate disabled people's refusal to live their lives to the fullest extent available. Life as a dependent of force is not "life to the fullest extent." And there is no "we" "and handicapped accessible housing." Which housing are you talking about? If it's private housing geared toward selling to the handicapped, yes, that makes good business sense, and constitutes a pursuit of happiness by both seller and buyer. If it's subsidized by our government, that means it is subsidized by FORCIBLE EXTORTION of government agents. "So that people with disabilities can pursue life, liberty and happiness. " Under the regime of government-extorted benefits, NO ONE CAN PURSUE life, liberty, or any meaningful form of happiness. " My response: Society can't take actions? So the American Colonists who led the revolution weren't a society?" The Continental Army was a subsection of a society, not a society in itself. It performed the bulk of the revolution. Other individuals contributed. Mere ascribed groupings such as "society" are convenient shorthand, they have no referent in reality but the individuals, individuals who often take different actions. Many American Colonists were loyalists. "hat about secret societies... the Mafia?" You're equivocating. That is not a "society," that is a voluntary organization, every individual chose to be there. It isn't comparable to say "American colonists," in which different individuals do different things in regards to the relevant subject matter. " There is no doubt that a check, given to the disabled just for being disabled is a benefit." Not to the person it is stolen from. And not to the disabled who know how to overcome their disability and produce enough that they will have more than the check's value stolen from. Nor to those who lose a job because their potential employer had to spend their salary on government deciding who gets benefits. Nor is it when those receiving the checks engender resentment by those who earned the money. "It is a benefit for the individual and for the government. " The government is running up debt to pay such things, constantly endangering it's sovereignty, which is the most important thing to most governments. "In some cases, people with disabilities have no other way to generate income" Then "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is impossible to them anyway. They aren't pursuing it, they are having some artificial resemblance of it handed to them, one that has lost all meaning. Happiness requires self-esteem, self-esteem requires earning what you get. "My opponent will argue that this is a mutually beneficial relationship between the individual and the government," No, you won't, because you used a straw man, extending my support of a SPECIFIC VARIETY of accommodation outside it's proper context. " In accordance with the American Disability Act of 1990, all post-secondary educational institutions must (upon student approval) take into account a student's disability into consideration in the application process" In other words, all post-secondary educational institutions are slaves to the whim of government, and so is whoever is paying for them. This addresses the rest of your argument. "I am not advocating hand-outs just fo hand-outs sake, I find (as a disabled person) that some people need aid from the government and societal charities" "need" is not a rightful claim. And charities are not "Societal," they are made by specific people, and voluntary, achieved groupings, society is an involuntary, ascribed grouping. Sometimes sacrificial people, sometimes not, depending on what they get from the charity. "In an idealistic world, where their where people weren't born with disadvantages beyond their control, there would be no need for this resolution, but in a world marred with scars and sickness, someone must be their to give the those afflicted a hand up, and they must do so with care." Error of confusing agent and beneficiary. Simply because someone needs something does not mean anyone else must provide it. Need, again, is not a rightful claim to a slave. "t is a moral obligation." Morality is the field of pursuing one's values. NOT the field of destroying one's values, becoming a slave to people who become dependent and thus incapable of understanding those values. "We must give "special consideration," because you can't treat a blind citizen's ailment with the same procedure as you would do with someone crippled by polio, cerebral palsy or MS. " Yes, I can. The procedure is simple. If I am a business, I treat them all with whatever procedure will make me the most money. If I am a government, I do the same, noting that not providing them access to the same government buildings and services I use for the business of government with everyone else will undermine my ability to govern, that being the only relevant consideration, and not a special one, I can't make it impossible for taller than normal or shorter than normal or black or transgendered people to use them either.