Self-study
Javier: Support Government workers are paid higher hourly wages than comparable private sector employees. ██ ███ ██████████ █████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████
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Speaker 1 Summary
Javier concludes that the government could save money by hiring private contractors to replace government employees. This is because government workers earn more per hour than comparative private sector employees.
Speaker 2 Summary
Mykayla points out that, as shown by an analysis of government contracts, the government pays a lot more on average to hire contractors than it pays for government employees to do comparable things. Her implicit point is that the government probably wouldn’t save money by replacing government workers with comparable private sector employees.
Objective
We’re looking for a point of disagreement. The speakers disagree about whether the government could save money by hiring private contractors to perform services now performed by government employees.
2.
Javier and Mykayla disagree with ████ █████ ████ ███████
a
the government could ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████
Not a point of disagreement. The speakers likely agree that the government could cut spending by reducing the number of its employees. The issue is whether replacing those employees with private contractors would cost more or less than keeping those employees on the payroll.
b
the government would ████ █████ ██ ██ █████ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████████
This is a point of disagreement. Javier thinks the government would save money. Mykayla provides evidence suggesting the government would not save money.
c
government workers generally ███ ████ ██████ ██████ █████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ██████ ███████
Mykayla doesn’t express an opinion. She doesn’t discuss the wages of government workers and private sector employees. She only discusses the amount the government paid for services. This doesn’t necessarily translate to wages, since payments can include various non-wage expenses.
d
every service that ██ █████████ █████████ ██ ██████████ █████████ █████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ███████████
Neither expresses an opinion. Nobody specifies whether every service could be done by a private contractor. In any case, even if they did express an opinion, there’s no indication the speakers have opposing views.
e
the total amount ██ █████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████████ ████████
Neither expresses an opinion. Javier discusses comparative hourly wages, and Mykayla discusses comparative payments on contracts, but neither discusses total spending on employees vs. contractors.