Post-Hoc Fallacy Analysis

Bias is essentially taking a certain perspective based on predetermined mental notions and beliefs that may not always be true. In the article, Hurley mentions that “The sad state of the economy all goes back to the big increase in imports from China.” He doesn’t want to blame his own country for its problem, so he blames China for it. He is biased against China. Another example from the article of bias is when Anderson says that “Labor unions…. [have] caused higher prices and greater unemployment.” He is biased against labor unions, so he is blaming them for all the problems that the country is facing economically. These assumptions aren’t true, but the one-sided perspectives that are taken skew the economic reasoning of the point they are trying to make. Therefore, these are clear portrayals of flaws in economic
Making this connection is not always accurate. In the article, Miner argues that because labor “unions have been increasing wage rates” and a depression, inflation, and unemployment have ensued means that the labor unions have caused these economic downturns. According to Post-Hoc Fallacy, this reasoning isn’t always correct because there could be other factor influencing the economic problems other than the labor unions. Raised interest rates, deregulation, and even wars can affect the economy in harmful ways; the connection between two events cannot be assumed by the chronological orders in which they happen. In the article, Hurley also says that because there was an increase in imports from China and a “sad state of the [America’s] economy” followed, the imports from China are what caused the recession in America. This can’t be assumed either; as mentioned before, many other factors could have gone into causing the recession that could have involved the imports from China. Therefore, according to Post-Hoc Fallacy, these are not sound economic