Unit 5 Debate Prep: Sports Betting, Corporate Housing, and Choice Feminism
- Priya Khaitan
- Jul 30
- 3 min read
This is the free pillar post for Unit 5 of the Ivy Spires Debate Prep Series 2025–26. It covers the driving question, topic overview, and lesson summaries. Full lesson content — case maps, briefs, PREP structures, and round files — is available to Knowledge Packet subscribers.
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Unit 5: Domestic Economics, Regulation and Choice Feminism
Weeks 17 to 20 — January through February
This unit brings together three debates that sit at the intersection of individual freedom and collective harm. PF February and March cover domestic economic regulation. WS Prepared Motion 3 explores feminist theory. US Extemp covers tariffs and the Federal Reserve.
Driving Question: When a market grows faster than regulation can follow — or when individual choices undermine collective goals — who is responsible for the harm that results?
The Resolutions
PF February: Resolved: The Federal Trade Commission should establish a federal regulatory framework for sports betting.
PF March: Resolved: The United States federal government should ban corporate acquisition of single-family residences.
WS Prepared Motion 3: This House, as the feminist movement, would embrace 'choice feminism.'
Lesson Overview
Lesson 5.1 — WS Prepared Motion 3 and PF Sports Betting: Individual Choice vs Structural Harm
Choice feminism, as defined by Ann Hirschman, holds that any choice made freely by a woman is a feminist act. The structural feminist critique holds that choices cannot be evaluated in isolation from the social structures that shape them. This is the tension that drives WS Prepared Motion 3.
PF February follows the same fault line. The Murphy versus NCAA Supreme Court decision in 2018 legalised sports betting across all 50 states. Addiction data, FTC jurisdiction questions, and the case for federal minimum standards across a fragmented state-by-state market are all in play. The lesson asks: is protecting adults from their own choices ever justified?
Lesson 5.2 — PF March: Corporate Housing — When Wall Street Buys Main Street
Institutional investors now own a significant and growing share of single-family housing stock in major US markets. The Affirmative case rests on the housing affordability crisis, community displacement, and anti-competitive effects on homeownership. The Negative case rests on property rights, pension fund exposure to housing as an asset class, and market liquidity.
Both cases are built with current housing data: average home price-to-income ratios, institutional ownership percentages by city, and corporate landlord market share. The lesson asks: does India face a similar problem — or is this a uniquely American market failure?
Lesson 5.3 — US Extemp: Tariffs as Foreign Policy and the Federal Reserve under Pressure
Two US Extemp questions from NSDA Nationals 2026. Question 1: Are tariffs proving to be an effective tool for the United States to accomplish foreign policy goals? Question 10: Does President Donald Trump see Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell as a political enemy?
Both questions concern the boundary between economic tools and political control. The lesson covers Trump tariff policy and trade war outcome data, the history of Federal Reserve independence, and the Powell-Trump conflict timeline. Students build PREP outlines for both questions and submit a full 5-minute speech on one.
Lesson 5.4 — Big Questions NEG Build: Intelligence as the More Powerful Force
The Negative must prove intelligence is more powerful than creativity — not merely equally important. The NEG framework for this unit defines power as measurable, reproducible change.
NEG contention 1: systems thinking — the scientific method, institutional design, and legal reasoning all require intelligence as their foundational architecture. NEG contention 2: intelligence enables creativity, not the reverse. Creativity without cognitive evaluation cannot distinguish valuable novelty from noise.
Supporting evidence from James Heckman's research on IQ and life outcomes, medical and scientific breakthroughs requiring systematic intelligence, and AI as intelligence amplification rather than creativity enhancement.
Extemp Questions Covered in This Unit
US Extemp 1: Are tariffs proving to be an effective tool for the United States to accomplish foreign policy goals?
US Extemp 4: How should state governments address concerns about fraud in their social programs?
US Extemp 10: Does President Donald Trump see Chair of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell as a political enemy?
Go Deeper — Subscriber Content
Each lesson in this unit has a subscriber post with the full argument maps, evidence cards, PREP structures for Extemp, case outlines for World Schools, and complete round briefs for Public Forum and Policy.
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