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------题目------
The following appeared in a memo from the new vice president of Sartorian, a company that manufactures men's clothing.
'Five years ago, at a time when we had difficulties in obtaining reliable supplies of high-quality wool fabric, we discontinued production of our deluxe alpaca overcoats. Now that we have a new fabric supplier, we should resume production. This coat should sell very well: since we have not offered an alpaca overcoat for five years and since our major competitor no longer makes an alpaca overcoat, there will be pent-up customer demand. Also, since the price of most types of clothing has risen in each of the past five years, customers should be willing to pay significantly higher prices for alpaca overcoats than they did five years ago, and our company profits will increase.'
------正文------
In the memo, the author claim that the company should resume production of deluxe alpaca overcoats. In substantiate this claim, the author pointed out that the market was lack of this kind of clothes for five years, and their major competitor also did not provide this kind of clothes. However, I found that this argument is full of unwarranted assumptions and problematic for several critical flaws.
Firstly, the author unfairly assume that having a new fabric supplier promise requirable resuming production. Without this evidence, it is entirely possible that the new supplier provide fabric in low quality which can not be used in deluxe alpaca overcoats production. In this case ,the author's recommendation would be considerablly undermined.
Secondly, the author unreasonable predict that their major competitor no longer making alpaca overcoat result in absence of alpaca overcoat supply in market. The author provide no evidece that there are no other company producing this kind of overcoats .Without such evidence, it is very likely that there are other company or companies supplying the market with sufficient overcoats, therefore, the author's conclusion is dubious.
Thirdly , given that alpaca overcoats disappear in market for five years. the author fails to establish the causal relationship between market demand of deluxe alpaca overcoats and absence of supplying of this kind of overcoats for five years. Without proving this causal relationship, it is also very likely that the customs' taste have changed and they have no longer have interests in this style of overcoats. In this case, the author's recommendation would be seriously weakened.
Finally, the author unfairly assume that the company would surely make increasing profit from deluxe alpaca overcoats production. For one thing, the author cites that the price of most types of clothing has risen in each of the past five years, and assume that customers would be willing to pay higher prices for alpaca overcoats. The author commits a fallacy of false analogue. It is entirely possible that this style of overcoats is not fit for customers taste and customers are not willing to pay higher price. For another thing, even the customers want to pay a higher price for this kind of overcoats , the company is not necessarily make profit, let along an increasing profit. The profitability is a function of revenue and expense. The author fails to consider the factor of expense .If expense outweighs the income , the company is not likely to make profit. Any of these scenarios , if true , would seriously undermine the author's conclusion.
To sum up, this argument is unconvincing for all reasons discussed above. To better substantiate the conclusion, the author should provide more evidence about the new fabric supplier is qualified, the demand for deluxe alpaca overcoats in market is existing and the company could make money through resuming production. |
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