PROMPT: The following was written as a part of an application for a small business loan by a group of developers in the city of Monroe.
“A jazz music club in Monroe would be a tremendously profitable enterprise. Currently, the nearest jazz club is 65 miles away; thus, our proposed club, the C Note, would have the local market all to itself. Plus, jazz is extremely popular in Monroe: over 100,000 people attended Monroe’s jazz festival last summer, several well-known jazz musicians live in Monroe, and the highest-rated radio program in Monroe is ‘Jazz Nightly,’ which airs every weeknight. Finally, a nationwide study indicates that the typical jazz fan spends close to $1,000 per year on jazz entertainment. It is clear that the C Note cannot help but make money.”
Discuss what evidence you would need to properly evaluate the argument and explain how that evidence might strengthen or weaken the argument.
The author of this argument states that a jazz music club in Monroe is a profitable enterprise based on three main assumptions. However, his argument is filled with holes and therefore, his argument is not strong to convince this reader.
First, the author assumes that since the nearest jazz club is far from Monroe that jazz fans would prefer to go to the proposed club, and therefore it would dominate the local market. In terms of choosing a music club to go to, the distance of the place is not the most important criteria that music fans would consider. Actually, if a music club that is further away than most of the clubs in the town has better music, fans might still prefer to drive longer to get there.
Additionally, the author assumes that jazz is popular based on three unconvincing facts. Just because people attended a jazz festival does not mean that jazz is popular among those people. It might be the case that those people had nothing better to do at the time than attending a jazz festival or they just wanted to give it try and by end they might really dislike it. Also, the fact that jazz musicians live in the town does not mean that jazz is popular in that town. Those musicians might be living there because of the quality of living in that town or because their family might already be living there. Besides, the highest rated radio program in Monroe might have chosen to broadcast there because of lower rent, a more convenient commute etc. These three facts do not support the author’s claim that jazz is popular in Monroe.
Finally, the fact that people spend$1,000 per year on jazz music does not make the jazz business tremendously profitable. It might be the case that in the same town people spend thousands more on another kind of music, such as classical or rock. Importantly, we don’t know about the costs of a jazz music club and whether opening a jazz music club is profitable or not.
The argument is not supported with facts but instead is full of assumptions. Therefore, the author does not make a successful case to convince this reader that a jazz music club in Monroe is such a profitable investment.
