papertrail123 wrote:
"In general, people are not as concerned as they were a decade ago about regulating their intake of red meat and fatty cheeses. Walk into Heart's Delight, a store that started selling organic fruits and vegetables and whole-grain flours in the 1960's, and you will also find a wide selection of cheeses made with high butterfat content. Next door, the owners of the Good Earth Cafe, an old vegetarian restaurant, are still making a modest living, but the owners of the new House of Beef across the street are millionaires."
The argument seeks to prove that people are less concerned than they were a decade ago about their intake of red meat and fatty cheeses. It relies on two main pieces of evidence, that Heart’s Delight, health conscious, organic store displays a large variety of fatty cheeses. It also asserts that the owners of Good Earth Café, a vegetarian restaurant, are less wealthy than the owners of House of Beef. Therefore, people must be less cognizant of their intake of red meat. This argument is weak, and relies on several assumptions which are unfounded and cannot stand up to critical analysis.
First of all, the fact that Heart’s Delight supplies a large selection of fatty cheeses is hardly evidence that individuals who shop there are less conscious about their intake of these cheeses. These individuals may appreciate having a wide selection, but they may enjoy these cheeses in moderation compared to the rest of their diet. We also don’t know how well this selection of cheeses sell compared to non-fatty cheeses. Simply having a large selection does not mean that these products are in high demand, or that there is wide consumption of them. It may simply indicate a fragmented market of suppliers and consumers of these cheeses, and it is necessary for Heart’s Delight to stock a small amount of many different brands to satisfy a large portion of their shoppers.
The comparison of the individual wealth of the owners of Good Earth Café and House of Beef is also highly flawed. First of all, these owners may not derive all of their wealth from these two restaurants, and each may be invested in a variety of other establishments or have inherited their wealth from their relatives. The personal wealth of these owners also is not perfect indicator of the health or profitability of their businesses, and it is certainly not an indicator of whether the population at large is concerned about their intake of red meat. Even if the author is correct in his assumption that Good Earth Café is more successful than House of Beef, it may simply be due to the fact that House of Beef has better food than Good Earth Café in each of their respective markets. For example, there may be vegetarian restaurants that are much more successful than House of Beef. We also don’t know exactly what House of Beef serves, and whether it offers any menu items that don’t contain red meat.
Finally, the largest fallacy that this argument displays is the assumption that either of these examples gives enough data to capture the behaviors and beliefs of the entire population of consumers. The cheese selection of an individual grocery store and the person wealth of the owners of two adjacent restaurants cannot possibly be a valid indicator for the beliefs of the entire population or market. The argument could have been much stronger if the author had included any population-level survey data, or even data about the fatty cheese and red meat markets and consumption per capita. Instead, the author chooses to make large leaps of logic from anecdotal data which entirely fails to prove his point.
It is clear that the argument is highly flawed, and relies on unproven assumptions. More generally, the anecdotal evidence provided cannot be used to draw any of the larger, population-wide conclusions that the author attempts to prove. Therefore, the reasoning is weak and has no legs to stand on.
Hi
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