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Murph finds a kindred spirit

Congratulations. You found a quote with a Murph-style error in logic.

Here's the situation: People eat enough bread to satisfy their need for calories, then use their remaining food money on meat. Less effective, more enjoyable.

The price of bread goes up. The response: Eat the same amount of bread and cut back on the amount of meat. The need for bread doesn't vary with the price, of course.

Our quoted author, however, believes apparently that the more expensive bread is, the more people have to eat of it to supply their nutritional needs.

Quoting:

You?re going merrily along like this, until the price of bread goes up. Now you can?t afford the same bundle of bread and meat you were buying before. You have two choices:


Eat less bread and more meat.
Eat more bread and less meat.

Actually, if you enjoy being alive, you really only have one choice: option two.

[End quote]

Well, how about: Eat the same amount of bread and less meat?

So the quoted author includes an arbitrary element that helps make the point he intended to prove. Something like Murph's (false) assertions about Windows that he packs into the premises of his arguments.

Congratulations, Murph!

Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 08/05/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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