51. 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 Hearts Delight, a store that started selling organic fruits and vegetables and whole-grain flours in the 1960s, and you will also find a wide selection of cheeses made with high butterfat content. Next door, the owners of the Good Earth Caf, 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... etc. The author of an article about lifestyle trends concludes that, in general, people are not as concerned as they were a decade ago with regulating their intake of red meat and fatty cheeses. As evidence, the author cites the fact that a wide selection of high-fat cheeses is now available at a long-established grocery store, Hearts Delight, which specializes in organic fruits and vegetables and whole grains. The author further points out that the owners of the vegetarian restaurant next door, Good Earth Cafe, now make only a modest living while the owners of the new House of Beef across the street are millionaires. This argument is unconvincing. To begin with, the argument relies on the assumption that the dietary habits and attitudes of customers at these three businesses will reflect those of people generally. But the three businesses, all located in the same area of a single community, just might serve a clientele whose diets differ greatly from the diets of people in other areas of the community, or in other communities. The generalization that the author draws from this biased sample cannot be considered reliable. |