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It was a while ago now that I first read this Huffington Post article by C. Robert Gibson about the success of Governor Dayton’s economic policies, but I still remember how much the final paragraph incensed me. And it still does. But it’s not for the reason you might expect, namely, economic/political stance. (Quite frankly, I don’t know enough about economics, nor do I follow politics/current events enough to have a strong opinion on this matter either way; so, for all I know, the facts are correct and the conclusions—save the conclusion in the last paragraph—are valid and accurate.) Rather, it’s for reasons of logical reasoning. I’m not saying that his final point is wrong, or that his premises/facts are wrong, but that his logic is wrong: the conclusion, as he phrases its, simply cannot be derived from the premises he presents. There is a critical failure of logic in that final conclusion, and I feel that such logical failings (the cynic in me says that some are intentionally faulty so as to be misleading) are becoming more and more prevalent nowadays. So I wanted to address this issue head on so that we can all be better prepared to not be misled by faulty logic, whether accidental or intentional.

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