Taxes and Growth

Welcome! You are encouraged to register with the site and login (for free). When you register, you support the site and your question history is saved.

In most countries, lower taxes stimulate economic growth, which is an increase of the capacity of an economy to produce goods and services. In the nation of Tattua, economic growth is significantly higher than it is in the nation of Hothal. Clearly, therefore, Tattua's industries must, on the whole, be further advanced technologically than Hothal's are.

The argument is most vulnerable to which of the following criticisms?

Review: Taxes and Growth


Explanation

Reading the question: As in Drivers Over 30, here we have a couple short statements of evidence and then a statement of opinion--a conclusion. Here, the conclusion statement is introduced by the word "clearly," which is almost invariably used when a statement isn't clear, in which case that statement is an opinion. These brief arguments resemble syllogisms. The most famous syllogism is: "All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal." When you confront a syllogistic or pseudo-syllogistic argument, you can build your filter using term matching.

Creating a filter: as in Drivers over 30, we can match terms by sketching or imagining a table:



The worst mismatch of terms here is the last one. The argument appears to equate economic growth and technological advancement. Or, possibly, it assumes that advanced tech is the cause of the economic growth and not something else, like lower taxes. Either one of these views is not stated or supported in the argument as it stands, so we have found a major weakness in the argument.

Applying the filter: The key is that there could be something else that has caused economic growth. That notion is conveyed by answer choice (C). Choice (A) isn't true; the conclusion is not a paraphrase, since, as we've said, it comes out of nowhere with the new terms "technology" and "advancement." Similarly, choice (B) is off because the argument is missing connections, not offering contradictory connections. Skipping to choice (E): this answer choice, like (A), would require mentioning "technological advancement" earlier in the argument. Similarly, (D) means there is a logical loop, but tech advancement is not referred to earlier. Note that, given the format of the answer choices, a logical test such as the negation test is not possible, so we have had to rely solely on our filter to get to the answer. The correct answer is (C).


If you believe you have found an error in this question or explanation, please contact us and include the question title or URL in your message.