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Howee
Joined: 27 Nov 2009
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Location: OREGON (in my heart)
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 Posted: 06/16/19 2:59 pm ::: Quiz: Liberal/Conservative....? |
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A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be very liberal, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth.
She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch conservative, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.
One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs.
The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.
He responded by asking how she was doing in school. Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.
Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Audrey Doing?"
She replied, "Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over."
Her father asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That's a crazy idea, how would that be fair? I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!"
The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, "Welcome to the conservative side of the fence." |
Valid analogy? Invalid? Why?
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Ex-Ref
Joined: 04 Oct 2009
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| Posted: 06/16/19 3:38 pm ::: |
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justintyme
Joined: 08 Jul 2012
Posts: 8407
Location: Northfield, MN
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| Posted: 06/16/19 4:34 pm ::: |
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It is invalid on multiple levels due to logical fallacies.
First off, there is an unsupported implied premise that wealth has something to do with hard work versus laziness. Since this is not established as true anywhere in the premises, any conclusion that stems from this is invalid. The premises establish that the daughter works very hard, and that Audrey is lazy, and that she would not want to give a point of her GPA to Audrey specifically. These lead to an invalid conclusion that she should therefore support not giving money to poor people.
The error can be demonstrated by changing around the premise slightly. Say instead of Audrey, it is her friend Samantha. Samantha also works just as hard as the daughter does, if not perhaps even moreso. But because of factors out of her control, she has a 2.0. And because of the program that she is in, the daughter knows that there is no huge difference between her having a 4.0 or a 3.0. Her outcome will be the same. Yet, the difference between 2.0 and 3.0 will be massive for Samantha. Now is the daughter willing to give up part of her GPA?
The other obvious problem with this is that it is a false equivalency. Someone's GPA is specifically designed to be a personal metric to gauge their understanding and progress through an academic setting. It is by nature, a "selfish" thing. If I "give" points to someone else, I have not improved their grasp of a subject.
Taxes on the other hand, are specifically designed as a communal good. They are fundamentally meant to be a way for the government to provide to their citizens. So the only question then becomes: who should pay how much. Arguing for higher taxes for those that can afford it, is not at all akin to demanding something that was never designed to be shared, be shared.
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mercfan3
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
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| Posted: 06/16/19 8:17 pm ::: |
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| justintyme wrote: |
It is invalid on multiple levels due to logical fallacies.
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Yeah, there are a lot of them here.
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Luuuc
#NATC
Joined: 10 Feb 2005
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| Posted: 06/16/19 8:24 pm ::: |
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| mercfan3 wrote: |
| justintyme wrote: |
It is invalid on multiple levels due to logical fallacies.
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Yeah, there are a lot of them here. |
It's such a lazy effort that it doesn't warrant a proper response IMO, so kudos to jt for giving it multiple paragraphs. Its whole foundation - that a good GPA only comes from hard work and that a poor GPA only comes from lack of effort - is false. To take a mess like that and then apply it to a completely different scenario with a completely different set of parameters is just face-palmingly thoughtless.
So I'm sure it's out there getting a ton of likes on FB & IG.
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Howee
Joined: 27 Nov 2009
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Location: OREGON (in my heart)
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