The following appeared in an article in the Grandview Beacon."For many years the city of Grandview has provided annual funding for the Grandview Symphony. Last year, however, private contributions to the symphony increased by 200 percent and attendance at

The author of this argument asserts that because the Grandview Symphony seems to be fully self-supportive, the city's funding can be eliminated from the budget for the following year. The premise of this argument is not completely cogent from a logical standpoint as it fails to address three questions that are critical to the comprehensive understanding and rationality of the argument presented.

First, the argument states that attendance doubled for one of the series that is part of the symphony. However, this one series may not be representative of the whole symphony. What are the statistics on the attendance rates for other acts of the symphony? If the attendance rates were drastically cut at the other acts of the symphony, this could compromise the increase for the concerts-in-the-park series. Therefore, it is essential that the question of how attendances for the other series are affected from previous years. This argument could be strengthened if it provided information on other parts of the symphony and stated that they also exhibited greater rates of attendance, hence, generating more revenue for the organization.

Second, the speaker states that ticket prices were increased for the following year. What is the reason for this increase in ticket prices? It is not fair to say that ticket prices were increased solely for the reason of high demand and financial success. The symphony might, conversely, be in troubled times and may have increased prices to generate greater revenues from the ticket sales. Alternatively, the increase of these ticket prices could cause the demand to go down and less people would purchase tickets to the symphony. According to the law of demand in economics, an increase in the price of a product causes the demand to go down. Therefore, the it is flawed to conclude that the increase of ticket prices is a sign of self-sufficiency. The argument could be fortified if it clearly stated that the specific reason for why the Grandview symphony increased its ticket prices was due to its great demand for that year.

Finally, the conclusion itself that the symphony is self-supporting does not have a strong foundation. Although the symphony may be generating more revenues than before, this does not translate to complete self-sufficiency. What is the company's financial statement for this year? In order to determine if the amount of money that the organization is raising is enough to sustain itself, we need to know its solvency and other costs, both explicit and implicit, to calculate a percentage upon which to base its financial stability. The author can strengthen the argument by mentioning some financial values to assure that the money the organization is generating is enough to not warrant funding or help from other sources.

By answering the vital questions of attendance rates for the different series in the symphony, increase in ticket prices, and its financial data, the argument could garner a stronger basis for reasoning. Without these integral assumptions in place, the argument proves to be inherently weak and irrational .