Argu15 [Shining Sep 作文组] 8.31

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TOPIC: ARGUMENT15 - The following appeared in a newsletter offering advice to investors.

"Over 80 percent of the respondents to a recent survey indicated a desire to reduce their intake of foods containing fats and cholesterol, and today low-fat products abound in many food stores. Since many of the food products currently marketed by Old Dairy Industries are high in fat and cholesterol, the company's sales are likely to diminish greatly and their profits will no doubt decrease. We therefore advise Old Dairy stockholders to sell their shares and other investors not to purchase stock in this company."
WORDS: 411          TIME: 0:35:00          DATE: 2006-8-31

In this argument, the arguer asserts that Old Dairy stockholders should sell their shares and other investors not to purchase stock in this company. To support this conclusion, the arguer use a survey to indicate that people desire to reduce their in take of foods containing fats and cholesterol. In addition, the arguer cites the company's profit would decrease. However, there are several serious fallacies in this argument.

First of all, the survey used to demonstrate people like low-fat food is biased and incomplete. The survey indicates that over 80 percent of the respondents want to reduce their intake of foods containing fats and cholesterol, but the credibility of this survey is doubtable. The arguer does not cite what kind of people it investigated. Maybe the people in the survey are all over weighted fat people. Because they want to be slimming, they decide to eat low-fat food to control their weight. Or the amount of the samples is insufficient. If the amount of people of the survey is just 100, there are only 80 people who do not eat high-fat food. A biased and incomplete survey is untenable.

Second, the arguer just guesses that the Old Dairy's sale would diminish greatly and their profits would decrease. There is no evidence to prove this conclusion. This is just an arguer's assumption. Maybe just a few people do not like the food of the Old Dairy Company. And the taste and price of this company's food are very good. Therefore, the sale and the profit would not decrease.

Finally, even if the reasons above are true, the suggestion that stockholders should sell their shares and other investors not to purchase stock in this company is hasty. Although the food of the Old Dairy in the market is high in fat and cholesterol, it can not prove the company would lose market and profit. Perhaps, the manager of the company have already realized this situation, they are improving their products. The new products would be popular and have much profit than before. If this assumption is true, the arguer's advice is totally false.

To sum up, the conclusion lacks of credibility because the evidence cited in the analysis does not lend strong support to what the arguer maintains. To strengthen the argument, the arguer would have to give a fair and complete survey. To better evaluate the argument, we would need more detail information about the future plan of the Old Dairy Company.