Your task is to collect an example of a real-world fallacies in reasoning. These
ID: 412221 • Letter: Y
Question
Your task is to collect an example of a real-world fallacies in reasoning. These may come from newspaper editorials, letters to the editor, print advertisements, magazine articles, web sites, or other published sources in the public domain. You may want to check the internet, I hear that there is lots of high quality information there.
Provide a link to the media.
Identify: Clearly identify or classify the type of fallacy committed. State the single most likely fallacy that is involved. Argue for the appropriateness of your categorization of the fallacy over other possible interpretations. Do not state that an argument involves three or four "possible" fallacies.
Analyze: Include an analysis of the fallacy, indicating how and why the reasoning employed is deficient. Show what the arguer fails to do or fails to prove, and why that makes the argument fallacious. In addition, explain how serious or grave the fallacy is: some fallacies are relatively minor, others entail major shortcomings. Not all fallacies invalidate an argument altogether.
Remedy: Offer a repair or remedy that the arguer could employ to make the argument non-fallacious, or at least less fallacious. How might the arguer have revised the argument to make it more acceptable?
Explanation / Answer
This discussion is based on the column published by Prof. John T Harvey on “Why You Should Learn to Love the Deficit: Federal Budget Fallacies” in Forbes.com.
The basic idea presented by him is that contrary to popular beliefs a high fiscal deficit is actually a good thing and contributes to the growth of the economy and the debt raised by the government to fund the deficit can always be paid back since it is denominated in local currency and the government can always print them.
The fallacy in this argument is that government can always print money to pay back debt without having a major impact elsewhere. In reality, a government when it indulges in printing money always reduces the value of the currency and if that currency happens to be the reserve currency for the world can cause disruptions in the international economies and may further slowdown economic growth. Also it would increase inflation and thus force an increase in interest rates and thus making private investment unviable. So the economy may actually slow down due to this action. There is no mention of interest rates or the interweaving of economies in the article and this implies a fallacy.
As a remedial measure, the author should put a mention about the sustainable level of deficit and debt which would not lead to a spiraling effect on the domestic and international economy and in fact propel economy. He should put a caution that debt and deficit in a calibrated fashion helps economy, however if the levels are too high then the entire economic structure may be destabilized.
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