TOPIC: ARGUMENT67 - The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a newspaper serving the villages of Castorville and Polluxton.
"Both the villages of Castorville and Polluxton have experienced sharp declines in the numbers of residents who pay property taxes. To save money and improve service, the two villages recently merged their once separate garbage collection departments into a single department located in Castorville, and the new department has reported few complaints about its service. Last year the library in Polluxton had 20 percent fewer users than during the previous year. It follows that we should now further economize and improve service, as we did with garbage collection, by closing the library in Polluxton and using the library in Castorville to serve both villages."
WORDS: 544 TIME: unlimited DATE: 2007-3-17
In this argument the author recommends that villages of Castorville and Polluxton should close the library in Polluxton and use the one in Castorvill to serve both villages. To serve this recommendation the author points out that they could simulate the experience that the two villages recently merged their once separate garbage collection departments into a single one in Castorvill and few complaints have been reported about its serveice. The author also points out that the library in Polluxton had 20 percent fewer users last year than previous one. However, the recommendation relies on a series of unsubstantiated assumptions, which render it unconvincing as it stands.
A threshold problem with the argument involves the unpersuasive comparion between Garbage collection and library. The author ignores the complexity of the issue that both the two are quite different services and have different distinct market, so the comparison in nature is unwarranted.It is entirely possible that the new department will benefit a lot for the combination of the two garbage colleciton departments because it will save money and time for collecting garbage between the two villages. While after the two libraries merge, the company might lose a lot of clients for some people who live in Polluxton will not go that far to read or borrow books in Castorville. So different situations will make garbage collection and library have different schemes to cope with different problems. To simulate blindly will surely cause inexpectant bad results.
The argument also assumes unfairly that the report that few complaints about its service means that the new garbage collection department has a good service. The argument ignores a host of other possible explanations for few complaints. Maybe because the new garbage collection department which is recently built up has not enough time to show their problems of service. Or perhaps the administration who aims to conceal problems has not reported the complaints of villagers at all.Without ruling out all other possible expanations for few complaints of the new department, the author cannot convince me that the new department is providing good service to residents.
Finally, even if the author can substantiate all the foregoing assumptions, the author's assertion that by combining the two libraries they will sure to econimize and improve service is unwarranted. There is no evidence to show the residents' attitude towards the combination of the two libraries. It is equally possible that most people still need both of the libraries and do not want to lose any one. Furthermore, even if it is necessary to shut down one of the two libraries and combine the two, the issue of residents' attitudes, the real situations of the two libraries and so forth should be considered in order to decide which library should be closed. Maybe to close Castorville but not Polluxton is a better choice.
In conclusion, the recommendation is not well supported. To convince me that they will economize and improve service by closing the library in Polluxon, the author would need to provide the two villages' residents' use of the two libraries, attitudes toward combination of the two libraries and the feasibility of the combination. Moreover, the author should know the operation of the new garbage collection department and provide feasible scheme according to libraries' own characters.