The following appeared in the editorial of a newspaper -
"A study suggests while the manufacturing industry contributes a whopping 40% of the total taxes collected by the national government, only 10% of the subsidies, granted by the government, go to the manufacturing industry in the forms of lower cost of raw materials, fuel, etc. This is when the manufacturing industry is second only to agriculture in generating employment and, is probably the main force establishing the nation as a major economic global power. Clearly, the subsidy structure is the nation is unfair and more must be done for passing the subsidies to the manufacturing industry."
My response The argument states that the manufacturing industry contributes 40% of the total taxes collected by the national government but still only 10% of the total subsidies are provided to this industry. The argument also states that the manufacturing industry ranks second when it comes to generating employment, second only to Agriculture, and is the main force behind establishing the nation as a major global economic power. Based on these arguments, the final conclusion reached is that the subsidy structure of the nation is unfair and more must be done for passing the subsidies to the manufacturing industry. This final conclusion reached is flawed for a number of reasons as discussed below.
Firstly, the argument assumes that 10% of the total subsidies being provided to the manufacturing industry in the forms of the lower cost of raw materials, fuel etc are less than the required amount. There are no statistics to substantiate this point, it is a shot in the dark. It may very well be the case that 10% of subsidies is more than enough for the Manufacturing industry as these things vary from sector to sector.
Secondly, it has been assumed that there should be a positive correlation between the contribution of an Industry in the total tax collections and the portion of total subsidies that the Industry should get. It very well can be the very opposite for all we know. There should be proper statistics to support this assumption.
Finally, the argument has been made that since the Manufacturing industry is second when it comes to generating employment, it is probably the main force behind establishing the nation as a major global economic power. There are no statistics to support this argument. Moreover, it has been stated clearly that the Agricultural sector employs more people than the Manufacturing sector but still the Manufacturing sector has been credited with being the main force behind the nations' economic growth. There is no annual revenue and profit report to compare both the sectors or for that matter all the sectors of the economy.
In conclusion, the final conclusion reached by the given argument is flawed for the reasons stated above. Also, for these arguments to be valid, proper statistics should be provided with respect to the productivity of all the sectors of the economy, the role total number of jobs in a sector plays on its total output and reasons as to why sectors with a higher contribution to the tax collected should be given higher subsidies.