Logical Reasoning

PT10 · S1 · Q19 Fares on the city-run public buses

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Fares on the city-run public buses in Greenville are subsidized by city tax revenues, but among the beneficiaries of the low fares are many people who commute from outside the city to jobs in Greenville.

Conclusion (therefore)

Bus fares should be raised enough to cover the cost of the service.

Evidence

Fares on the city-run public buses in Greenville are subsidized by city tax revenues.

Among the beneficiaries of the low fares are many people who commute from outside the city to jobs in Greenville.

Some city councillors argue that city taxes should be used primarily to benefit the people who pay them.

Evaluate

GIVEN THAT tax money helps pay for the bus, tax money is meant to benefit the people who pay those taxes, and this bus benefits some people who commute from outside Greenville,

HOW CAN WE ARGUE bus fares should not be raised?

Debating whether we "should" do something is all about comparing upsides to downsides.

The author thinks that raising the fare will get rid of the downside of "city taxes benefiting commuters". But maybe it would create new downsides (maybe the new fare would be too expensive for locals to continue using the bus).

Goal

Let's find four answers that defend the status quo or give us a way to say that raising fares would be a bad move, overall.

19.

Each of the following, if true, would weaken the argument advanced by the city councilors except:

  1. Many businesses whose presence in

    Weakens

    This presents a new downside of raising fares: many businesses that benefit the city's taxpayers would leave the city. That helps us argue "we should not raise fares".

    5% picked this

  2. By providing commuters with economic

    Weakens

    This presents a new downside of raising fares: it would cause more people to drive to work, which would lead to worse air pollution and more expensive street maintenance. That helps us argue "we should not raise fares".

    7% picked this

  3. Increasing transit fares would disadvantage

    Weakens

    This presents a new downside of raising fares: it would be bad for the poor residents. They don't pay taxes but they are an exception where we still want them to benefit from the bus (and other city run services). So if they couldn't afford to new, higher fare, that would go against something we want. It gives us a way to argue "we shouldn't raise fares".

    12% picked this

  4. Correct

    Voters in the city, many

    Why this is right

    The proposed move to raise bus fares has nothing to do with increasing local taxes, so this answer is just irrelevant to the conversation at hand.

    Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    40% picked this

  5. People who work in Greenville

    Weakens

    Like most EXCEPT questions, the four answers we need to eliminate don't all work the same way. Three of them presented some new downside that would be created by raising bus fares. This answer weakens by saying the downside the author is highlighting isn't a real downside. The author is annoyed that commuters are benefiting from the tax money used to subsidize buses, because only taxpayers are supposed to benefit from that tax money. Well, surprise, surprise, author, it turns out that these commuters ARE taxpayers, so it's totally fine that they're benefiting from city tax dollars. Since they're paying money into Greenville's tax collection (via the city wage tax), there's nothing wrong with them benefiting from tax dollars via riding the subsidized buses.

    36% picked this

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