The primary type of argument writing is to address a problem or challenge and propose one or more solutions. It is in the solutions that we find creativity, since there is little point in simply repeating solutions that have previously been offered or tried.
That is why I was interested in a piece of legislation introduced last week in the Colorado House that would allow liquor stores to offer fresh food for sale along with their traditional beer, wine and liquor.
At first glance, the idea seems wacky, I suppose, but that's part of the nature of creativity. The idea is that there are large swaths of the state that are essentially "food deserts," lacking grocery stores and thus encouraging unhealthy eating habits. But in those same food deserts, there are lots of liquor stores. Why not combine the existing infrastructure with some new options for consumers? The bill would not require anything of liquor stores, but simply allow adding limited fresh food options.
The first response from industry groups and many legislators was the typical "this won't work because..." Making laws is not improv, of course, where the rule is that you can never say "no," but must think, "yes, AND..."
For writers, that automatic tendency to look for reasons to stick with "no" is really limiting in any sort of problem-solution essay. If our first tendency is to claim that nothing can or should change and that everything is too complex or intractable to warrant trying something new, then there's no good reason to write at all.
It is easy to imagine giant grocery chains, like King Soopers, not liking this idea one bit. And the state has settled on a grudging compromise between grocery stores and liquor stores, with each getting a decent percentage of the business.
What appealed to me about this legislation is that, no matter how unlikely the bill might be in terms of passing or solving the problem if passed, it at least highlights the issue and forces people to consider options or changes while not requiring huge expenditures on infrastructure.
There were serious proposals some years ago to add mini-weather stations to U.S. post office vehicles. The idea was that USPS vehicles go nearly everywhere in our vast country, and that a "hole" in our weather prediction services was a limited number of reporting stations. Robust computer power could gather and report vast amounts of weather data and thus help the weather service increase accuracy and timeliness. There are an estimated 200,000 USPS vehicles in operation.
This proposal went nowhere due to some added expense (adding the tech) along with our puzzling national disagreement about weather, climate change, and (let's face it) hatred of government.
There may be a slightly better chance that post offices may be able to offer some basic banking services in the near future, making things like cashing checks and depositing money a bit easier. In fact, there was such a service in the U.S. from 1910-1967, and there is a pilot program running now to bring it back.
There are for-profit companies that will fight this, of course, including check-cashing services that earn fees and perhaps offer loans with very high interest rates.
But there are over 34,000 post offices in the country, which is about the same number as all U.S. Starbucks, McDonald’s and Walmart locations combined. That's a lot of coverage and a lot of convenience, particularly for the poor. Big banks don't make anything cashing checks, at least directly, so this idea may actually make it.
The point is that creative solutions are the pay-off for readers of problem-solution essays. Most of the time we are all too familiar with the problems.
What sticks with us are the solutions, even if they need further development.
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