Please rate this argument

[krunalgmat]

The following appeared as part of an article in a magazine on lifestyles.
“Two years ago, City L was listed 14th in an annual survey that ranks cities according to the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them. This information will enable people who are moving to the state in which City L is located to confidently identify one place, at least, where schools are good, housing is affordable, people are friendly, the environment is safe, and the arts flourish.”
Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.


The author concludes that in City L schools are good, housing is affordable, people are friendly, the environment is safe, and the arts flourish. The author's line of reasoning is that the City L was listed 14th in an annual survey that ranks cities according to the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them. The author's argument is unconvincing for several reasons.

1st of all the author's statement that city L is one of the best option to live based on a survey that was conducted 2 years ago, depends on questionable assumption that the conditions haven't change in this 2 years. The author's hasn't mention that who conducted the survey. whether local Govt. of city L conducted the survey? In this case the survey may be fully biased. one possibility is also that the people whose opinion considered for the survey are atypical, thus their opinions don't represent the opinion of majority. So to draw the conclusion based on biased survey is not convincing at all.

2nd the author fails to explain that how many cities participated in the survey. one possibility is that only 14 City participated in the survey. So in this circumstance, we cannot derive the conclusion that author derives.

Last but not least the author has not mention what were the criteria for the survey. I mean what factors were considered while calculating "Quality of life". So if all the criteria mention in the argument are not included in the survey, conclusion is self defeating. it is possible that Schools are excellent in City L but housing is not affordable. It is also possible that environment is safe but art is not flourish. Industry development is excellent but divorce rate is too much high. Means until & unless we don't know all the criteria included in the survey, the conclusion remains unproven.

In nutshell the author's conclusion that in City L schools are good, housing is affordable, people are friendly, the environment is safe, and the arts flourish. based on reasoning that the City L was listed 14th in an annual survey that ranks cities according to the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them is invalid because the author fails to consider above mention flaws.