Please criticize

[yucoco]

The following appeared as a letter to the editor from a Central Plaza store owner.

"Over the past two years, the number of shoppers in Central Plaza has been steadily decreasing while the popularity of skateboarding has increased dramatically. Many Central Plaza store owners believe that the decrease in their business is due to the number of skateboard users in the plaza. There has also been a dramatic increase in the amount of litter and vandalism throughout the plaza. Thus, we recommend that the city prohibit skateboarding in Central Plaza. If skateboarding is prohibited here, we predict that business in Central Plaza will return to its previously high levels."

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

My response

 

The following argument is flawed for numerous reasons, Firstly, the argument is based in the unwarranted assumption that the economy is the same as two years ago, rendering its main conclusion, that prohibition of skate boarding would bring the business in Central Plaza to its previous level, which is high.

 

The argument fails to provide any justification that the climate of economy is the same as two years ago. So even if we assume that people used to come to the Central Plaza stop shopping at Central Plaza because of skateboarders, the argument is still lacking because it does not prove facts that the basic economy around the city is the same.

 

The argument also leaves many other unanswered questions. Even if the economy stays the same as two years ago, the Central Plaza is not necessarily likely to be attractive to many people. For example, another shopping area which is more attractive to many people more than the Central Plaza. There is a lot of case that Plaza is forced to close ite business because it lose in the competition with other Plaza. Other reason can be that the exterior of the Central Plaza just became old, which deprive alacrity to shopping from people.

 

Because the argument makes several unwarranted assumptions, it fails to make a convincing case that the Central Plaza can get back to previous levels of business.