Argument67 [OB小组]_第19次作业_关闭图书馆和合并垃圾站

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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: 540          TIME: 00:30:00 + 8         DATE: 2007-7-31

In this argument, the author concludes that they should close the library in Polluxton and using the one in Castorville to serve both villages to economize and improve service. To support this conclusion, the author points out that numbers of residents who pay property taxes sharply declined, and that they merged the garbage collection departments into single one and few complaints about service were reported by the new collection department. The author also notes that the library in Polluxton had 20 percent fewer users last year than previous year. However, this argument suffers from several flaws and is therefore unconvincing as it stands.

First of all, the fact that few complaints were reported does not necessarily indicate that the collection service is improved after the merging. The complaints may not relate with the quality of the service. Perhaps there are many complaints and the new garbage collection department did not report all the complaints. Or perhaps the residents do not complain to garbage collection department but to the administrator department. Without considering these and other explanations for the fewer complaints, the author cannot make a sound conclusion based on such an assumption.

Secondly, the author assumes that merging garbage collection departments saved money. The author fails to provide any information that the new garbage collection department has saved money. It is entirely possible that more money are needed to collect garbage in Polluxton because the new department is farther from Polluxton than before. Thus the total expense on the garbage collection has increased. Or perhaps there are more money spent on management since the new department is bigger and the totoal expense of the department has increased. The author cannot make me convinced without substantiating this assumption.

Thirdly, the fact that the library in Polluxton had 20 percent fewer users last year than previous year has little indication that the library in Polluxton can be closed. Perhaps the number of users last year is an aberration because there were more work for most residents and they had less time for reading and this phenomena would not continue. Or perhaps the number of users in Castorville reduced by 40 percent last year and closing the library in Castorville is wiser. In short, the author can hardly make a convincing conclusion without accounting for these and other possibilities.

Finally, the author assumes that the decline of number of residents who pay property taxes is due to the poor service and expense. The author provides no evidence to support this assumption. Perhaps the service is good but the tax is too high in the village of Polluton and Castorville so the residents went to other places. Or perhaps a town near these villages needs many workers there so that many residents went there for jobs. In short, the author overlooks many other factors that lead to the decline of numbers of residents in both villages and cannot make a persuasive conclusion.

In sum, this argument is unpersuasive as it stands. To support this conclusion, the author must provide clear evidence that the new department indeed has saved money and improved service. To better assess the conclusion, more information about the leaving residents and more detail about the merged garbage collection department are needed.