PT109 · S3 · Q19 Raphaela: Forcing people to help

Out Of Scope Person 2: Morals Both Agree, If Anything Edward never touched on morally wrong, just whether governments do or don't have a right. He also never discussed what would be true for governments that don't permit emigration. We only know how he feels about those that do permit emigration. If we were stretching his comments in a Most Supported way, we would assume that Edward might be saying "the governments that don't permit emigration don't have the right to tax their people", in which case he would be agreeing with Raphaela.

We couldn't infer this categorical claim about what "ALL governments should do" from either person's statements. But, presumably, both parties would agree to this, since it's such a weak idea. "Fine, citizen, we'll allow you to voluntarily help other people."

Raphaela would presumably say YES to this, because she's implying by connecting the first sentence to the second that redistributing by taxation counts as forcing people to help others. Can we derive from Edward's claims that he thinks, "When a government redistributes resources via taxation, they're not necessarily forcing people to help others?" I mean, kind of, right? Since Edward is saying that some of these governments give people the freedom to leave, wouldn't he say that the government isn't forcing people to help others? It kind of comes down to "what do we mean by people" -- its citizens? Or anyone in the world. Clearly, you're not forced to help others if you decide to move to a different country. But if you continue to be a citizen of that country then the taxation system is still compelling you to pay taxes and using that to help others. Edward would agree to that. Edward even uses the line "live under their authority", which connotes the idea that citizens are forced to do certain things by their government. Ultimately, if we're picking between (B) and (D), (B) should feel safer because it uses wording that Edward explicitly commented on, and isn't vulnerable to this objection of "depending on how we interpret this answer choice, they might both agree". Edward directly comments on whether governments have the right to redistribute resources via taxation.

The only person who would potentially agree to this is Edward, and we can't say that he's committed to this strong an idea. He says permits emigration → has right to "force help" This answer is saying the reversed logic version of that forces help → should permit emigration