Economist: The economy seems to be heading out of recession. Recent figures show that consumers are buying more dur...
RichmondMay 11, 2018
Primary Evidence
I correctly identified the premises and conclusion, but the label "primary evidence" threw me off.
To me, the argument unfolded as follows: (Premise) Consumers are buying more durable goods --> (Premise) Indicates expected economic growth in near future --> (Conclusion) Economy seems to be heading out of recession.
Since the statement, "Consumers are buying more durable goods than before" is the first premise upon which the argument is based, does this mean that the statement serves as the primary evidence? If this is the case, what is the best way to differentiate primary and secondary evidence? Can there be multiple pieces of primary evidence?
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The reason this is labeled as the "primary evidence" is that it is the background information backing up the author's other premise. The author uses the premise that consumers seem to be expecting economic growth to back up the conclusion that the economy seems to be heading out of recession, but the only data-driven "evidence" is the phrase that "Consumers are buying for durable goods than before."
In the exams that I took while prepping (30+), I don't remember questions that would have you try to determine primary vs secondary evidence. I seem to remember a few that had you determine if "evidence" was relevant but nothing like this question with multiple data sets. I'm not going to claim encyclopedic recall, but I don't think you have to worry about that.
