Perfect Solution Fallacy: Difference between revisions

** Also, the original point that $700 billion will not pay off a debt that's already in the trillions is simple math.

 

* [[And a Diet Coke]] is a specific example of this fallacy, arguing that even the smallest attempt to cut back on sugar is futile. Sugar sodas actually contribute quite a bit to obesity and getting rid of them can yield significant results to one's health.

** Surely that trope is not saying that the attempt is futile, just that it is incongruous with consuming an excessively large meal at the same time?

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

* The ultimate example is rejecting anything you like on the basis that it has been imperfectly proven; for example, rejecting the existence of China on the basis that you have never seen it.<ref>Or if you have seen it, rejecting the certainty that your own memories aren't lying to you, or if you are seeing it right now, rejecting the certainty that what you're seeing reflects some external reality</ref> This inevitably results in a philosophical concept called [[wikipedia:Solipsism|solipsism]] since it is impossible to prove beyond all ''possible'' doubt anything barring your own mind.

* This is popular when answering a technical question on the internet: "There is no solution to your problem which I can guarantee to work in 100% of all cases. So I'm not going to bother telling you what will work in 99% of all cases."

* People who attempt to scare people into abstaining from sex often use this fallacy, with the argument that since condoms don't prevent pregnancy and STDs ''100% of the time'', they are useless; never mind that they do so over 98% of the time. The "perfect" solution of "abstinence" is also [[Begging the Question]], since what is actually being advocated is ''abstinence-only education'' which the argument assumes will result in 0% of people having casual sex. In fact, 60% of people who have such education will go on to have casual sex anyway, and will be 30% less likely to use any form of contraception; the "perfect" solution is statistically massively inferior to the imperfect one.

** Likewise, in many cases the anti-vaccine group uses the potential for side effects to argue against vaccines in their entirety, often failing to do a cost-benefit analysis for the vaccines. For example, the smallpox vaccine carries a very real risk, as it is composed of a live virus (the cowpox virus). If one chooses to vaccinate a country with the smallpox vaccine, some people will get sick with cowpox. However, when the world began vaccinating against smallpox, an estimated two million deaths per year were due to smallpox, with many of the remaining cases becoming disfigured. [http://www.aafp.org/afp/2003/0901/p889.html This link summarizes the costs of vaccination (warning: graphic images of disease state).] The world chose eradication, knowing some people would be adversely affected by the vaccine, over the millions more who would die terribly from smallpox. Furthermore, because of the vaccine, smallpox was ''eradicated'' in 1979; the vaccine would be irrelevant today if it weren't that some nations may attempt to weaponize the virus.

** Penn and Teller explain this fallacy and its relevance to vaccines for laypersons [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfdZTZQvuCo here]. NSFW due to strong language, as expected from Penn and Teller.

** And then from the other side, the problem of evil. Why would a good God allow things bad things to happen to good people? Slightly subverted in that many Christian theists do in fact ''claim'' God to be perfect (or at least all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good), so any apparent imperfection must be justified (and indeed, there are many strong arguments that attempt to just that).

* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20110407160401/http://www.financialpost.com/Avertible+catastrophe/3203808/story.html U.S. EPA rejecting skimmers from The Netherlands] from cleaning 99% of the oil from the water they pick up then return to the sea because the EPA requirement says that water can only be returned to the Gulf of Mexico if it's 99.9985% pure. The EPA finally allowed use of the equipment, but not the Dutch ships or crews.

* This comes up all the time in politics, usually in the form of refusing to support certain candidates or laws because they don't completely solve our problems. It's a major cause of [[We ARE Struggling Together!]], as factions push for their perfect solutions.

* Commonly used to refute the reliability of [[The Wiki Rule|wikis]], usually [[The Other Wiki]]. The fact that there's no way to permanently protect every single page from all [[Wiki Vandal|vandalism]] or absolutely confirm that every last sentence added in good faith is absolutely true over all scenarios, becomes an excuse to claim the wiki is always wrong. When told [[You Could Always Edit It Yourself]], they claim disdain for cleaning up other people's messes.

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[[Category:Logical Fallacies]]