Reconstruction of Mettler, Our Hidden Government Benefits
Here's my premise-list and paragraph reconstruction of the Mettler article:
Contents
Premise List reconstruction
Main Argument
P1: If you're unaware of the benefits you receive from government, you can't form good critical opinions about the size of government.
P2: People are unaware of the benefits they receive from government.
GC: Public discourse about the size and role of government would improve from increased awareness of the benefits we receive from government.
P2 of the main argument is also an IC:
P1: There is evidence that people are unaware of their use of government benefits. (summarize)
IC: People are unaware of the benefits they receive from government.
The author also offers an explanation of the evidence. Our unawareness of government benefits is explained by the fact that they are invisible or submerged in the tax code.
Paragraph Form Reconstruction
In "Our Hidden Government Benefits," Suzanne Mettler argues for the general conclusion that political discussion of the size of government would improve if people were more aware of the benefits they receive from government. Her main argument is that if you're not aware of the benefits you receive from government, you can't form good critical opinions about the size or role of government. She also claims that people aren't aware of benefits received. She supports the second premise of this deductive argument with evidence that people systematically under-report their reliance on government benefits and that this phenomenon varies with political belief. She provides an explanation for this bias by suggesting that government benefits are invisible to us, because we interact with a private company to receive them, or because they are submerged in the tax code.
Sample of student work
Sample 1
The author of this article, Suzanne Mettler, argues that the threat to democracy today is not the size of government but rather the hidden form that so much of its growth has taken.The first part of her argument supports the first part of her conclusion. She cites statistics showing that over half of the participants in the poll were unaware of using government programs and denied it altogether. She argues that Americans fail to see how government programs actually helps them. In general she argues that their opinion of government would be different if they weren't so unaware of it's involvement.
Another set of arguments is directed at her second part of her conclusion -- that if those who assume government has never helped them could see how it has, it might help diffuse our polarized political climate and reinvigorate informed citizenship. Mettler explains many forms of invisible government and how people are unaware it's government related comparing it to the visible forms which people are completely aware of. She believes that political leaders should reveal government benefits for what they are by talking openly about them and that the government should provide "receipts" that inform people of the size of each benefit they get through the new W-2 tax code. Mettler thinks that by alerting citizens of the available government programs they'll be more receptive to government involvement viewing their help as positive in their lives. For that reason she recommends talking openly about available benefits for citizens.
Sample 2
In “Our Hidden Government Benefits”, Suzanna Mettler argues to support the conclusion that democracy is threatened by the invisible form that government has taken to the people with two main reasons. Mettler emphasizes the first reason that democracy is threatened through the fact that even though statistically a large portion of the population receives benefits from programs such as Social Security, Medicare, or student loans, many of them do not see the government as the source of assistance. She explains the public’s lack of awareness to where the assistance is coming from through description of the submerged state that focuses on the market’s role instead of the government’s role. The explanation is further supported with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s own perspective of why Social Security should be understood as an earned right and making the public’s denial seem acceptable instead of neglecting pressing issues of current national politics. However, the public’s blind views to the government’s role in these programs keep citizens from having the ability to speak meaningfully and form opinions on the programs. The second reason that builds off a citizen’s lack of awareness to the government’s function in public assistance programs, is that in a democracy each citizen must be able to speak openly and knowledgably about these subjects to create a good environment for citizenship and a place where political views do not alter their perceptions. These current errors in the view of government involvement and our population’s knowledge of the government actions, threaten the ideals of democracy. Mettler concludes that democracy would not be threatened, if government involvement was not so invisible to the people and if citizens were more aware to the government’s roles in programs that assist them so they can form educated and fair opinions of their government.
