Multiple choice

We must do something about the rising cost of our state prisons. It now costs an average of \$132 per day to maintain a prisoner in a double-occupancy cell in a state prison. Yet, in the most expensive cities in the world, one can find rooms in the finest hotels which rent for less than \$125 per night. The argument above might be criticized in all of the following ways EXCEPT that

  1. it introduces an inappropriate analogy

  2. it relies on an unwarranted appeal to authority

  3. it fails to take account of costs which prisons have but hotels do not have

  4. it misuses numerical data

  5. it draws a faulty comparison
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

(2) The chief failing of the argument is that it draws a false analogy. Since prisons are required to feed and maintain as well as house prisoners (not to mention the necessity for security), the analogy to a hotel room is weak at best.

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