The following appeared in a magazine article on trends and lifestyles.
"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 the 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 Café, an old vegetarian restaurant, are still making a modest living, but the owners of the new House of Beef across the street are millionaires."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.Your Answer:The argument states that "In general, people are not as concerned as they were a decade ago about regulating their intake of red meat and fatty cheeses". When stated this way, along with the evidences cited, the argument reveals an example of a leap of faith from logical reasoning. There exists a stark disconnect between the evidences presented and the conclusion of the argument, to an extent where the argument can be disregarded as a manipulation of truth. The conclusion relies on far-fetched assumptions, hence it is weak and lacking a logical flow.
Firstly, the argument readily assumes the difference in financial status of a vegetarian and a meat-based restaurant as conclusive evidence to make a claim regarding the change in dietary habits of an entire population. Simply because a non-vegetarian restaurant like the House of Beef is more successful than the vegetarian 'Good Earth Cafe', does not indicate anything about the food preferences of the people. There can be multiple factors behind the success of the former food joint, including quality/taste of food, ambience, size, brand name, and many others. Then again, it is still a stretch to assume that the owners of House of Beef are millionaires only because of the success of their eatery, and not other factors like generational wealth. Furthermore, the fact that the Heart's Delight store sells high-butterfat cheeses alongside organic fruits and whole grains, does not conclude anything about whether their customers prefer cheeses over grains or vegetables. Clearly, the evidence has a lot of loopholes with regards to the conclusion, unless certain more details are explicitly stated.
Finally, it can be asserted that the argument would have been much more substantiated and logical had there been answers to some of the following questions: 1. Has Heart's Delight always been selling cheeses alongside organic fruits and vegetables, or was these a recent addition in keeping with the demands of the time? 2. What are some of the distinguishing factors between Good Earth Cafe and House of Beef, other than their vegetarian or non-vegetarian feature?
With no convincing answers to the aforementioned questions, there is thus no substantive evidence to arrive at the conclusion stated in the argument. The argument is flawed for multiple reasons and full knowledge of the context is needed before drawing any kind of conclusion.