The following appeared as a letter to the editor from a Central Plaza store owner."Over the past two years, the number of shoppers in Central Plaza has been steadily decreasing while the popularity of skateboarding has increased dramatically. Many Central

The argument given brings out the fact that the business in Central Plaza are decreasing due to increasing of skateboarding in the Plaza. While this argument seems convincing on first glance, there are significant underlying flaws that raise doubt about the author’s conclusion.

The argument relies upon the assumption that skateboarding causes the decreasing of the business in Central Plaza but there is no evidence to prove the causality. This is a classic case of logical fallacy, named causal fallacy. Too many other factors may affect the reasoning as well. For example, other stores may have been arising during the years near the Central Plaza. These are offering discount about the products.

People are moving out of the place due to their needs. Shoppers are preferring other stores because of the quality of the products and variety of them. People are losing their jobs and it has been difficult to make money.

The claim about the increase of litter and vandalism around the Plaza is similarly unsubstantiated. It does not follow that these are why the business in the place are decreasing. It may exist many other factors as mentioned above or any other ones which explain the decreasing of their business.

Another mistake is to make a prediction that prohibiting skateboarding will bring the high level of the business. Skateboarding may not be the cause of the decreasing of the business. Furthermore, prohibiting it may not bring the business to its high level. There are probably other factors which can contribute to the decreasing.

For all of the above reasons, the writer of the letter about the store owner in Central Plaza has drawn a dubious conclusion. It may be likely that the prohibition of skateboarding in Central Plaza will return the high level of the business in Central Plaza, but to say it “cannot help but do so” is certainly fallacious, unless all of the questions raised above are untrue. Therefore, if the writer were to provide greater evidences, his argument would be more convincing.