Question

A government passes a law increasing taxes on banks. Two days later, there are several bank robberies. A politician who opposed the taxes claims that the new law is causing bank robberies. What is wrong with the politicians argument

Answer 1

If there is no concrete proof confirming link between increasing bank Robberies and the new law, then the argument is invalid.

Answer 2

In this example, the politician is making a claim that is not backed by evidence. Although he believes that the fact that both situations occurred at the same time is evidence of one being the reason for the other one to happen, this is a fallacy, or a mistake in logical thinking. The politician is confusing correlation with causation. The fact that two events happen together does nor necessarily indicate that one is the consequence of the other one.