Written in 30 minutes.
Prompt:
The following appeared in a memo from the Mayor of the city of Hillview:
In order to alleviate the serious unemployment problem in our town,we should encourage.Autotech to build its automobile manufacturing plant in our area.The Hillview landfill which has been undevelopped for decades is a perfect site for this plant.the building and staffing of this plant will put to work thousand of Hillview residents left unemployed after computech computer software programming company abandoned its national facility last year.i am asking the city council to authorize a large campaign to attract the company and offer a significant tax incentives to make our town attractive to this giant of car manufacturing.-
write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation and the argument on which it is based are reasonable. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.
My response:
The Mayor of Hillview, in a memo, asks the city council to authorize a large campaign and offer a signnificant tax incentive to Autotech automobile manufacturing company to build a manufacturing plant in their area. The serious unemployment problem in Hillview made him/her to make this request. Though what is proposed in the memo seems to bring good fortune for the people of Hillview, there should be a careful consideration before accepting the recommendation; a number of false assumptions and lack of enough data are present in the memo.
The memo reveals that the people of Hillview became unemployed when a software programming company left the area. This information implies that the people, in this case probably a large number of peole, who became unemployed are software professionals. Only a software-related company can help them get a job. It is very unlikely that they will be employed by the car manufacturing company because they are not manufacturing-professionals. And the memo does not give any information about whether the unemployed people have manufacturing skills too. It would have been better if the Mayor considered a software programming companny when he/she made the memo.
The memo also yields that the area has been undeveloped for decades. It does not give any other information regarding the undeveloped condition of that area. How can the Mayor be so sure that the undeveloped area of Hillview would seem attractive by the manufacturing company? Is there any attractive feature, asite the proposed tax incentive, that would make the car manufacturing company consider Hillview as a prospective area for a new plant? Without these information it is difficult for one to be convinced that the car manufacturing company would take the long-time-undeveloped Hillview to be a good place to establish a new plant. The memo should have addressed this concern to appear more reasonable.
There is a serious issue that went unaddressed - skills necessary for car manufacturing and opportunity for training in car manufacturing available in Hillview. The memo does not give us information about the car manufacturing skills of the unemployed people of Hillview. Do they have required skill regarding this activity enough to get a job from the car manufacturing Autotech? If not, is there any training facility available in Hillview or Autotech for car manufacturing? If not, it is unlikely that the unemployed people of Hillview would be benefitted by Autotech. And if there is no considerable benefit regarding employment from Autotech, it is futile to give a tax incentive to Autotech for building a new plant in Hillview. The Mayor should ensure the appropriate training facility for the unemployed people Hillview if he/she is inclined to invite Autotech in their area.
The Mayor seems to adress the serious unemployment problem existing in Hillview with a good and effective proposal to city council, but he/she forgets or ignores some issues that should also be addressed to prove the proposal reasonable. There are lack of enough relevant data and false assumptions existing in the memo. Before the proposal, presented in the memo, be accepted by the city council, these ignored issues should be resolved.
