A common counter-example is
A counterexample is useful to rebut a generalization. But I didn't say that all people who are punished are people who don't play fair; I said that some people who are punished are people who don't play fair. You can't use a counterexample against a point which says "there are some examples of X"; it's perfectly consistent for there to be some examples, and some other cases that are not examples.
You are also assuming that the trouble of traveling to and from an interview is where the stress and effort lies.
I am assuming that that stress is enough to discourage some lazy people. It needn't be a large percentage of the total stress to discourage lazy people; it could be that deliberately failing an interview is only 10% of the stress of a normal interview, but a sufficiently lazy person is unwilling to undergo even 10%.
Ah - I appear to have misread your comment, then.
Would I be correct in limiting my reading of your remarks to rebutting the generalization you quoted?
This thread is for asking any questions that might seem obvious, tangential, silly or what-have-you. Don't be shy, everyone has holes in their knowledge, though the fewer and the smaller we can make them, the better.
Please be respectful of other people's admitting ignorance and don't mock them for it, as they're doing a noble thing.
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