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- 声望
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发表于 2008-1-20 20:28:23
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The following appeared in a letter to the editor of the Walnut Grove town newspaper.
'Walnut Grove's town council has advocated switching from EZ Disposal (which has had the contract for trash collection services in Walnut Grove for the past ten years) to ABC Waste, because EZ recently raised its monthly fee from $2,000 to $2,500 a month, whereas ABC's fee is still $2,000. But the town council is mistaken; we should continue using EZ. EZ collects trash twice a week, while ABC collects only once. Moreover, EZ—which, like ABC, currently has a fleet of 20 trucks—has ordered additional trucks. Finally, EZ provides exceptional service: 80 percent of respondents to last year's town survey agreed that they were 'satisfied' with EZ's performance.'
In this letter, the arguer recommends that Walnut Grove’s town council should choose EZ Disposal as before but ABC Waste, though the fee for EZ is higher than ABC, for the reason that 1)EZ collects trash more frequent than ABC; 2)EZ has ordered additional trucks; 3) a survey shows that people were satisfied with EZ’s performance. However, these evidences are too insufficient to support the recommendation.
First of all,the arguer falsely depends on gratuitous assumption that WG is much better than ABC, for the reason that EZ collects trash twice a week, while ABC collects only once, and EZ has ordered additional trucks. Nevertheless, the assumption is incredible, for the arguer does not consider the town’s requirement for collecting rubbish. If Walnut Grove(WG) is a small town, it is entirely likely that once a week is enough for them, whereas twice is redundant and lavish. Or if WG is born a clean town and residents there prefer recycle the trash rather than throwing away, the need for trash collecting would be little. Similarly, the additional trucks of EZ would contribute nothing on trash collecting, for a fleet of 20 trucks might be enough for the whole town. Because the arguer does not provide status about local trash amount, it is hard to conclude that collecting twice a week better than once, let requirement for more trucks alone.
Thirdly, a survey that 80 percent of respondents last year satisfied with EZ’s performance can support nothing about the argument, for its validity is doubtful. Lacking information about the number and communities of residents surveyed, it is impossible to access the validity of the results. For example, if 100 denizens from the same community where EZ’s services happened to be high of quality were surveyed, the conclusion would be highly suspect. In addition, no evidence indicates that local denizens are not satisfied with ABC’s performance. Without ruling out these possibilities, the results of the survey are inadequate to hold the conclusion.
Finally, even if the town indeed needs services like what EZ can provide, whether the town could finance the services is unknown. It is possible that WG’s town council advocated switch from EZ to ABC whose fee is lower partly due to its finance ability. If the town finance can not afford the raised fee of EZ, it is understandable for the town council to make the choice. Or even if they can afford it, they prefer invest limited finance expense on other more important aspects like education and medical care, rather than expend too much in trash collecting. In these cases, the arguer’s suggestion would not stand at all.
To sum up, the arguer’s evidence lends little credible support to the claim. To persuade me that the town should choose EZ rather than ABC, the arguer would need to provide more clear evidence that EZ is more suitable for the town. To better evaluate the arguer’s claim, we should need more sufficient information comparing the performance and fee of the two trash collecting companies. We also need specified status about the town including finance and rubbish situation to help make decision more benefit for local residents.
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