ARGUMENT143 [REBORN FROM THE ASHES] TASK ONE by Ivy

aladdin.ivyUID: 2596664

TOPIC: ARGUMENT143 - The following appeared as a letter to the editor of a national newspaper.
Your recent article on corporate downsizing* in the United States is misleading. The article gives the mistaken impression that many competent workers who lost jobs as a result of downsizing face serious economic hardship, often for years, before finding other suitable employment. But this impression is contradicted by a recent report on the United States economy, which found that since 1992 far more jobs have been created than have been eliminated. The report also demonstrates that many of those who lost their jobs have found new employment. Two-thirds of the newly created jobs have been in industries that tend to pay above-average wages, and the vast majority of these jobs are full-time.

*Downsizing is the process in which corporations deliberately reduce the number of their employees.

分析：

结论：最近一篇报道使读者误解。报道称，那些有能力而因公司裁员失去工作的人，面临经济困难，需要很多年

才能找到另一份合适的工作。

反驳原因1，原文说since 1992 far more jobs have been created than have been eliminated.但并不代表所有空

缺的职位可以满足所有找工作的人。

反驳原因2，原文说many of those who lost their jobs have found new employment.这与结论并不矛盾。这些

找到工作的人可能也经历过经济困难，而且是在被裁很多年后才找到工作的。

反驳原因3，原文说Two-thirds of the newly created jobs have been in industries that tend to pay above-

average wages, and the vast majority of these jobs are full-time.并不能排除很多被裁员工挣着低工资，做兼

职。

In this argument, the author claims that people were misled by a recent article, which gives the mistaken impression that many competent workers who lost jobs as a result of downsizing face serious economic hardship, often for years, before finding other suitable employment. However, to prove those hypotheses requires more work of reasoning and more relative background evidences.

First of all, the fact that since 1992 far more jobs have been created than have been eliminated does not indicate that the number of jobs available could meet the demand of unemployed workers. The author might intensively conceal the precise rate of jobs that have been created, instead, he/she merely referred to an abstract phrase”far more”, which could not help us to decide whether the rate of job-increase in proportion to the rate of unemployed-increase growth or not. Since those available positions would not be only provided for someone who lost jobs, people who master a special skill and the undergraduates could also share the same opportunity as the unemployed. It is greatly possible that worker who lost jobs could not find an appropriate position in a short time, especially if, for example, the number of undergraduates would be more and more large in the foreseeable future.

In addition, the fact that many of those who lost their jobs have found new employment rules out neither the possibility that they suffered serious economic hardships before finding other suitable employment nor that they cost years before finding their jobs. Admittedly, as they have working experiences which plays a crucial role in one’s job searching, those unemployed workers, who lost their jobs as a result of downsizing are superior in finding a new employment than those undergraduates. However, downsizing, namely the process in which corporations deliberately reduce the number of their employees, made those unemployed lost jobs by which being considered as workers who were not that competent enough. Thus, even if many of those who lost their jobs due to downsizing have found new positions, they may have experienced long tough of periods as well as economic hardships.

Finally, the arguer does not rule out the possibility that many workers might have to accept under-average-wage jobs (one-third of the total new jobs), and that many other may have to take part-time jobs. As its known to all that how much an employee would earn considerably depends on how much profit he/she could make for his/her corporation, and since there is no evidence which could substantiate that those competent workers who lost jobs by a contributing factor of downsizing could make more benefits for their corporations than the others, the author’s claim cannot convince me thoroughly.

In sum, were there detailed background information demonstrating numbers of jobs available and the demand of unemployed workers, particular description convincing those unemployed worker could get the above-average wage and full-time jobs, the conclusion of the author would be more rational.


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