MOCK "Americans spend far too much of their time buying and

[steve.tan.chee.wei]

Read the statement(s) and the instructions that follow, and then make any notes that will help you plan your response. Begin typing your response in the box at the bottom of the screen.

The following appeared in a newspaper editorial during the holiday shopping season:
"Americans spend far too much of their time buying and consuming non-essential goods. Studies show that, on average Americans spend over a quarter of their leisure time shopping. As such, it is no secret why America is losing its competitive edge relative to other countries. Instead of spending their time productively, Americans are wasting time through frivolous consumption. In order to counteract this trend, Americans should spend more time focused on personal and communal development--by, for example, pursuing educational advancement or participating in volunteer opportunities."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. Point out flaws in the argument's logic and analyze the argument's underlying assumptions. In addition, evaluate how supporting evidence is used and what evidence might counter the argument's conclusion. You may also discuss what additional evidence could be used to strengthen the argument or what changes would make the argument more logically sound.

My Response:

The editorial highlights that American are spending too much of their time shopping and claims that this is the one of the reason America is losing it’s competitive edge against other countries. The arguments given are flawed because of the following reasons.

Firstly, the editorial mentioned that Americans spend too much time shopping and that time is quantified as a quarter of their leisure time. But the author fails to include information on what Americans spend on the other three quarters of their leisure time. For example, if they use the other three quarters of their time productively, then the one quarter use for shopping is justifiable.

Secondly, the argument given is that because of Americans spend a quarter of their leisure time on shopping is causing the their country as a whole to lose it’s competitive edge relative to other countries. However, the author didn’t include the data of what citizens of other countries are doing with their leisure time. Without this data, it would be premature to do a comparison.

Thirdly, the editorial continues to suggest that Americans would be better off spending their time on personal and communal development. However as the editorial doesn’t provide any data or linkage on how America is losing it’s competitive edge, no strong correlation can be made on how focusing more on personal or communal development can strengthen America’s competitive edge.

In summary, unless the points mentioned above are properly addressed, the arguments given are not convincing enough to support the given claim.