Council member: The preservation

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Weak7% picked this

   Property owners are sometimes allowed exemptions from restrictive

   Because "sometimes" just means "at least once time", it doesn't do much to bridge the divide between "Our #1 goal is preserving individual property rights" and "Our zoning laws prohibit you making any extensive alternations to your property".

   7%
2. B

   Doesn't Help Explain11% picked this

   It is in the best interest of property owners to maintain current laws in order to prevent an

   Although this offers a reason why homeowners could be at peace with the current zoning laws, it doesn't offer any reason why the city council would cite "individual property rights" as their #1 priority but then still have zoning laws that severely limit what individuals can do to their property.

   11%
3. C

   Too Weak3% picked this

   The city council places less importance on property rights than do

   Even if the city council places less importance on property rights, it still remains that property rights are the #1 concern of the city council, so our paradox remains.

   3%
4. D

   Correct67% picked this

   An individual’s property rights may be infringed upon by other people altering their

   Why this is right

   This explains how the restrictive zoning laws we're trying to explain our actually a result of the city council's #1 priority of protecting individual property owners' rights. They're not at odds with that priority; they're a function of that priority. If the city let me build my rooftop waterslide, I may become a tragicomic spectacle in the local news and that may lower the property values of my neighbor's property. Also the runoff from my rooftop slide might spill into my neighbor's yard. So the zoning laws forbid my right to build a rooftop waterslide in order to protect my neighbor's rights to maintain the value of their property.

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

   67%
5. E

   Too Weak12% picked this

   Zoning laws ensure that property rights are not

   It sounded in the first sentence like the city council wants property rights to be extensive (preserving them is the #1 goal). So if zoning laws are made to rein in property rights, then that sounds at odds with the first sentence, i.e. that's still our unexplained Paradox. If we interpret this answer to mean, "Yes, they want to protect property rights as a #1 goal, but they don't want them to become overly extensive, so they have zoning laws", that would work if the paradox had just been, "Given that #1 goal is property rights, why are the rights limited by zoning laws?" But the paradox is ... why are the rights almost nonexistent with current zoning laws? This answer is saying, "Well we need zoning laws so that there's not anarchy", but we need a way to explain why the zoning laws feel more like a North Korean autocracy.

   12%