- 最后登录
- 2008-6-30
- 在线时间
- 0 小时
- 寄托币
- 3037
- 声望
- 1
- 注册时间
- 2004-1-27
- 阅读权限
- 30
- 帖子
- 3
- 精华
- 1
- 积分
- 1691
- UID
- 154082
- 声望
- 1
- 寄托币
- 3037
- 注册时间
- 2004-1-27
- 精华
- 1
- 帖子
- 3
|
144According to a poll of 200 charitable organizations, donations of money to nonprofit groups increased by nearly 25 percent last year, though not all charities gained equally. Religious groups gained the most (30 percent), followed by environmental groups (23 percent), whereas educational institutions experienced only a very small increase in donations (3 percent). This poll indicates that more people are willing and able to give money to charities but that funding for education is not a priority for most people. These differences in donation rates must result from the perception that educational institutions are less in need of donations than are other kinds of institutions.
In this argument, the arguer draws the conclusion that few people are willing to give money to education according to the different increase percentage from a poll of 200 charitable organizations. While this argument seems somewhat specific and plausible, close inspection would reveal it is fraught with vague, oversimplified and unwarranted claims in several respects.
In the first place, the arguer fails to convince us the total amount of funding for education is less than that for religious groups and environmental groups. The mere data of increasing percentage for example, the 30 percent donation of religious groups, the 23 percent of environmental groups, and the 3 percent of education, do not represent the total amount of donation. It is entirely possible that the basic amount funding for education is much more than any others, thus even having increased only by 3 percent, the total funding is still much higher than money donated to other groups. If so, it is much more likely that people still donate to education as their first choice. Unless the arguer could acknowledge and rule out other possibilities relevant to the donation of education, the conclusion that funding for education is not a priority for most people is quite open to doubt.
In addition, there is no evidence to demonstrate that more people are willing and able to give money to other charities rather than education. Granted that the increase percent of donation in the religious and environmental groups do means the total funding for these two charities are higher than education, it does not necessarily follow that it is because more people care about and have the ability to give donations to charitable organizations. As a matter of fact, there might be some wealthy people who donated a large amount of money which takes up almost half of the total amount of funding. In this case, it is not more people but only some wealthy individuals that provide the funding for donation. Or it may also be that the donation for environmental and religious are so small that it become compulsory task for the people in the nation, but the fact might be that people are reluctant to give donation to these two charities. All in all, without knowing the true condition of donation and the real attitude towards it, the conclusion is groundless.
Last but not least, the mere conclusion is only based on a survey of 200 charitable organizations, since the arguer makes claims about the donation in general, the organization sampled should be representative. Since there is no evidence to prove that people who want to donate to education all went to the organization included in the 200 sample, we have good reason to doubt the validity of the result from the poll. In fact, it is much more likely that many people directly go to local schools to donate their funding rather than through the charitable organizations, which are not included in this survey. If this is true, the total amount for donation for education might be enormously greater than donation for other groups. Thus it is presumptuous for the arguer to make the conclusion.
To sum up, the argument is neither logically sound nor persuasive because evidence provided does not support what the arguer maintains. To better bolster and strengthen it, the arguer would have to prove that the total amount of funding for education is indeed less than that of the other charitable organization. Also, it must be established that the poll is effective and efficient enough to represent the real condition of people's attitudes. Only with more convincing evidence, could this argument become more than just an emotional appeal. |
|