The council of Maple County, concerned about the county's becoming overdeveloped, is debating a proposed measure that would prevent the development of existing farmland in the county. But the council is also concerned that such a restriction, by limiting the supply of new housing, could lead to significant increases in the price of housing in the county. Proponents of the measure note that Chestnut County established a similar measure ten years ago, and its housing prices have increased only modestly since. However, opponents of the measure note that Pine County adopted restrictions on the development of new residential housing fifteen years ago, and its housing prices have since more than doubled. The council currently predicts that the proposed measure, if passed, will result in a significant increase in housing prices in Maple County.
Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the prediction 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 prediction.
In the given argument author has informed about a proposed measure in Maple County that its council wanted to implement to prevent the condition of overdevelopment. Author highlighted both the pros and cons of such measure , with supporting example for each. However to understand the underlying assumption of this argument there are certain question that need to be answered to understand clearly.
Firstly, on what context the author proposed the economic condition of Maple County is unclear. It leads to a hazy assumption about the county's overdevelopment and it's relation with economic viability of that county. Next , the restriction on new housing to prevent overdevelopment provides a weak link with the given context. Is the reason for the overdevelopment is overpopulation? Such answer is necessary to understand why the council is proposing such measure.
The supportive example of proponents is also somehow not convincing. Because in between 10 year it may possible that the economic condition of Chestnut County has changed. Also author didn't mention that the economic situation of the Maple County with the Chestnut County and Pine County are same when they implemented the measure to revive their economy. If the initial economic conditions of those two counties are not same then their comparison with the Maple County is clearly out of context.
Lastly, the restriction of new development clearly increases housing prices if the demand remains same. But only a example is not suffice to support this fact . The volatile nature of county's economy clearly demanding more detailed analysis about country's financial condition to understand the reason of it's overdevelopment and its supportive measure from economic view point. Then only we can able to clearly understand about the supportive measure.
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