argument48 <米国有米寒假作业>

blackswitchUID: 2110679

1.       Corpora,physical fitness
48The following appeared in a newspaper article published in the country of Corpora.
"Twenty years ago, one half of all citizens in Corpora met the standards for adequate physical fitness as then defined by the national advisory board on physical fitness. Today, the board says that only one quarter of all citizens are adequately fit and suggests that spending too much time using computers may be the reason. But since overall fitness levels are highest in regions of Corpora where levels of computer ownership are also highest, it is clear that using computers has not made citizens less physically fit. Instead, as shown by this year's unusually low expenditures on fitness-related products and services, the recent decline in the economy is most likely the cause, and fitness levels will improve when the economy does."

提纲：1电脑拥有量高，总体健康水平高，并不能说电脑对人体健康有危害
      2 健身产品和服务的花费低并不表明 是 人们在健身上的投入少了 导致了人们的健康问题
      3 健身产品和服务的花费低 也不能表明是经济的衰退。

21：57

In this argument, the arguer concludes that the decline in the economy is the reason of citizens less physically fit. To support this argument, the arguer points out overall fitness levels are highest in the region of Corpora where levels of computer ownership are also highest and peoples’ consumption in fitness-related products and services declined this year. As it stands, however, the argument suffers from several critical fallacies.

First of all, the mere fact that “overall fitness levels are highest in the region of Corpora where levels of computer ownership are also highest “ says little about the conclusion that overusing computer is not the reason of causing people’s less physically fit. Firstly, the author fails to inform us whether these people which spend much time using computer in Corpora have a better physical condition than others. Without this information, one has a good chance to believe that it is other people who has no computer and have a higher fitness level than ones of other regions contributes to the overall high fitness level. In addition, the high computer ownership level does not equates that computer ownership would spend much time in using computer. It is entirely possible that many computer owners in Corpora spend little time in using computer, at the same time, other regions of Corpora where low levels of computer ownership might have more people who spending much more time in using computer than these of Corpora.

Secondly, the arguer unfairly assumes that the decline citizen fitness level is the result of low expenditures on fitness-related products and services. However, it is not always this case. Firstly, commonsense tells us that spending little money in purchasing fitness-related products or services does not means that people do not care them health or take little physical exercise. It is entirely possible that people prefer some DIY fitness-related products or do some exercise by themselves rather than purchase them. In this case, low expenditures on fitness-related products do not influence their health. In addition, the author ignores a host of other possible factors which influence people’s fitness. For instance, Perhaps a new factory which brings negative effects to environment was established in this year. Perhaps overall increasing work burden brings stress to citizens. Perhaps some new entertainment makes people come into bad live habits. Perhaps the public sport facilities were reduced thereby providing few places for people to take exercise. Without accounting other factors that might contribute to the decline of citizen fitness levels, the arguer can not convince me that low expenditures on fitness-related products is only the reason of that.

Last but not the least, even if the low expenditures on fitness-related products and services is responsible for overall low fitness levels, the arguer fails to establish a cause relationship between low expenditures on fitness-related products and service and the decline of economy. People do not incline to spend money on fitness-related products doest not the means people is lack of money and there is a decline of economy. Many other alternative factors can explain this phenomenon. Perhaps people do not believe that these fitness-related products are helpful for their fitness based on their former experience. Perhaps people prefer spending their money on other aspects such as house, car, or fashion clothes to purchasing fitness-related products. In short, low expenditures on fitness-related products have little relationship with the decline of economy.

To sum up, the arguer fails to establish a causal relationship between the decline of economy and low overall fitness level of citizen. To strengthen the argument, the arguer would have to provide evidence about what is the actual reason for decline of overall low fitness level in Corpora.