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The following appeared in the editorial section of a campus newspaper.
“Because occupancy rates for campus housing fell during the last academic year, so did housing revenues. To solve the problem, campus housing officials should reduce the number of available housing units, thereby increasing the occupancy rates. Also, to keep students from choosing to live off-campus, housing officials should lower the rents, thereby increasing demand.”
Discuss how well reasoned... etc.
In this argument, the author holds the conclusion that campus housing officials should lower the rents of the campus housing, thereby increasing demand and that the officials should reduce the number of available housing units to increase the occupancy rates. At the first glance, this conclusion seems somewhat convincing, however, a further reflection will reveal the three critical fallacies it suffers from. 62
In the first place, the author posits a causal connection between the fall of the occupancy rates for campus housing and the fall of the housing revenues. Moreover, the author assumes that the increase of the occupancy rates will increase of the revenue. However, other factors besides the occupancy rates may affects the revenue. For example, the lower rental price of the house may decrease the revenue, which may not be compensated even with higher occupancy rates. Therefore, if the author provides no evidence to rule out such probabilities, the conclusion in this argument is unreliable. 96
In the second place, the author assumes that the increase of the occupancy rates may increase the demand. However, he or she provides no evidence to prove such an assumption. However, a more detailed analysis would reveal that other factors may far outweigh the occupancy rates to affects the demand. For example, it is possible that the environment of the campus houses is not good or the furniture in them may not be good, thus the demand of the houses is low. Lacking a more detailed analysis of such causes, it is presumptuous for the author to assert the conclusion. 100
Last but not the least, the author assumes that if the officials lower the rental prices, the revenues can be increase. However, the author fails to establish causal relationship between prices and revenues. There is no evidence whatever to indicate that revenues are solely dependent on prices. However, it is probable that when the prices are lowered, the number of the house that can be rented may not increase as expected. Thus, the revenues can not increase, and they may decrease in reality. 83
As it stands, the conclusion is unwarranted and misleading because the three critical fallacies. To make it more logically satisfactory, the author should provide more information about the questions that when the occupancy rate is the only factor that affects the housing revenue, whether the increase of the rates can increase the demand and whether to lower rental prices can bring the higher revenues. Only after getting such information, can we ultimately accept the conclusion of the argument. 78 |