Argument217

短发mmUID: 2840480

TOPIC: ARGUMENT217 - The following appeared in a brochure promoting the purchase of local franchises for a national chain of gyms.

"Now is the time to invest in a Power-Lift Gym franchise so that you can profit from opening one of our gyms in your town. Consider the current trends: Power-Lift Gyms are already popular among customers in 500 locations, and national surveys indicate increasing concern with weight loss and physical fitness. Furthermore, last year's sales of books and magazines on personal health totaled more than $50 million, and purchases of home exercise equipment almost doubled. Investing now in a Power-Lift Gym franchise will guarantee a quick profit."
WORDS: 313
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2010/7/24 20:43:54

This argument is well-presented, but poor-reasoned. The arguer told us that investing in a Power-Lift Gym(PLG) franchise could bring profit. With some logical flaws, this conclusion can not convince me so much.
To begin with, the reasoning is based on the current trends which is not convincing without such evidence as survey reports, various researches, and so forth. Maybe 'the current trends' is one-sided thought of the arguer.
And even if it is true that the current trends presented, there are still several logical fallacies. First, PLGs are already popular among customers in 500 locations, yet it fails to tell the concrete numbers of customers. Maybe there is only few people in those 500 locations which can not product more profits. Second, national surveys just can indicate the concerning of the people, however, people with the increasing concern with weight loss and physical fitness can use many methods to attain the goals. That is to say, going to PLG is not the sole way, and keeping in diet can also do this.
What's more, it is ridiculous to judge whether the PLG will be popular according to that the increasing sales of books and magazines on personal health and home exercise equipment. Those trends just tell us whether books or exercise equipments are well-sold, and moreover, it can not illustrate that this phenomenon will be continual. And even if that it will be go on, absent such evidence to show that it is a cause-and-effect relationship between the well-sold things and well-profited career. Maybe people are just interested in reading books and magazines. Or maybe they are willing to do exercises at home.
In sum, the arguer can not draw such conclusion that 'popular' is equal 'profit' and 'profit' is equal those conditions. To persuade us, the arguer should offer more evidence such as government reports and the feasible researches of this project.