Intern
Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 39
Given Kudos: 25
Location: Spain
Concentration: General Management, Technology
GPA: 3.5
WE:Management Consulting (Consulting)
Can anybody rate my essay, please? Kudos to best replies!
[#permalink]
12 Oct 2015, 00:17
The following appeared in the opinion section of a national newsmagazine:
“To reverse the deterioration of the postal service, the government should raise the price of postage stamps. This solution will no doubt prove effective, since the price increase will generate larger revenues and will also reduce the volume of mail, thereby eliminating the strain on the existing system and contributing to improved morale.”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The abstract suggests rising the price of postage stamps as a solution to reverse the deteriorated postal service. While the author's solution might be a valid one, he fails to provide enough evidence for it, making his argument flaw.
First, the author fails to address the following question to consider the possible causes of deterioration of the postal service: why is the postal service deteriorated? Thus, he makes it difficult to evaluate whether his proposed solution would be an effective one. Since he explains that rising stamp prices would improve the service because it will generate larger revenues and reduce volume of mail, one of the underlying assumptions of his argument is that the main cause of deterioration of the postal service are low revenues and too high mail volume. If proof of such low revenues and high volume were provided as the main driver of deterioration of the service, the argument would be strengthened. On the other hand, if proof were provided for other causes, for instance low satisfaction of workers or very low volume of mail due to increasing electronic correspondence, the argument would be considerably weakened, since the solution proposed would no longer address the main cause of the problem.
Second, even if the solution proposed were to properly address the main cause of deterioration, the solution itself contains certain flaws. The author implies that the stamps price would be increased by the exact amount such that it would generate larger revenues while reducing volumes. Let C1 and V1 be the current cost per stamp and the total number of stamps sold over a certain period of time, and similarly, let C2 and V2 be the new cost per stamp and the new total number of stamps sold over the same period of time, where C1<C2 and V2<V1, an underlying assumption is that C2V2>C1V1. This is, the increase in cost expressed as a percentage would lead to a decrease in volume of lower magnitude.
As a conclusion, the argument offered by the author might be valid, but he offers little proof of its validity. In order to better support his argument, thus making it stronger, he should present evidence that his proposed solution adequately addresses the main cause of the problem and that the underlying assumption behind the solution is a valid one.