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Politics : The Castle -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (3440)	6/3/2004 8:14:54 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 7936

If you want to play, you have to let the other side win once in a while particularly if they are right. But it so hard to find a time when you are right. :) Seriously you are right as often as the next person on SI but you want people to concede when you can't make an effective case that you are correct. It might be nice for you if people would just take your word that you are correct even when you give them no reason to think that you are correct but if you expect me to do that you will usually be disappointed. No matter how many facts someone puts up to support their argument. you will turn it around, claiming logic as your basis, and say it proves nothing. Anyone can post an encyclopedia worth of facts if they have the time and patience to do so. A solid logical argument that takes those facts and leads to a strong and relevant conclusion is more important. It would also be better if you actually stated your argument rather then implying it. A few posts ago you said that Americans are fatter then Europeans, you also said "most people do not eat to excess because they are happy". You didn't state your conclusion but in the context of the conversation and considering what you quoted your conclusion appears to be something like "The way the economy is organized in the US is inferior to the way it is organized in Sweden (or perhaps some other European country)". So your argument would be 1 Americans are fatter then Europeans 2 Most people do not eat to excess because they are happy. Therefore the American system is worse then Sweden's (or whatever other system you are supporting). That argument has so many holes I'm not sure it deserves to be called a logical argument. If I changed your 2nd premise "Most people do not eat to excess because they are happy." to something like "Most people who overeat are unhappy", and changed the conclusion from "the American system is worse...", to something like "Americans are less happy then Europeans. Then you would have an actual argument. However while I do think that your original 2nd premise is true I don't think the revised premise that most people who overeat are unhappy is true. Also even if most overeaters are unhappy that doesn't mean that a country with more overeaters (or with people who overeat to a greater extent) is necessarily less happy then a country that eats less. Furthermore even if Americans are really less happy then Swedes or Europeans in general that doesn't mean that changing to the Swedish system would make us happier. Tim