Logical Reasoning

PT135 · S2 · Q13 Humanitarian considerations aside

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Humanitarian considerations aside, sheer economics dictates that country X should institute, as country Y has done, a nationwide system of air and ground transportation for conveying seriously injured persons to specialized trauma centers.

Premise

Timely access to the kind of medical care that only specialized centers can provide could save the lives of many people.

Intermediate Conclusion

The earnings of these people would result in a substantial increase in country X’s gross national product, and the taxes paid on those earnings would substantially augment government revenues.

Main Conclusion

Humanitarian considerations aside, sheer economics dictates that country X should institute, as country Y has done, a nationwide system of air and ground transportation for conveying seriously injured persons to specialized trauma centers.

Evaluate

There are two arguments made. First, it may not follow from saving the lives of these people that the gross national product would be substantially increased. And second, even if it did result in a substantial increase in gross national product, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it is economically advantageous to institute a nationwide system of air and ground transportation for conveying seriously injured persons. The costs of instituting such a system could outweigh any increase in the gross national product.

13.

The argument depends on the assumption that

  1. lifetime per-capita income is roughly

    Irrelevant Relationship

    The per-capita income need not be the same in both countries for the comparison of the two countries to hold.

    9% picked this

  2. there are no specialized trauma

    Weaken

    This makes it less likely that building a system to convey seriously injured patients around the country will result in saving lives.

    5% picked this

  3. the treatment of seriously injured

    Irrelevant Comparison

    The issue is whether the cost of treatment outweighs the additional income that could be expected from saving the lives of seriously injured persons.

    13% picked this

  4. Correct

    there would be a net

    Why this is right

    The intermediate conclusion assumes that there will be a net increase in employment because it attributes the increased gross national product to “the earnings of these people.” This implies that people who survive serious injury reenter the workforce.

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

    64% picked this

  5. most people seriously injured in

    Too Strong

    Too Strong: most Out of Scope: automobile accidents The word "most" is famously wrong on Necessary Assumption because we so rarely care whether something is true of at least 51% of the time vs. at most 49% of the time. In addition, why are we specifically talking about auto accidents? Nothing in the argument was fixated on a specific type of accident that needs emergency care. If we negate this and say that "most serious auto injuries ARE currently treated in specialized trauma centers", would that weaken? It might start to feel like that does weaken, as though we could argue -- "Bah! Why bother building that system of air/ground transportation for getting people to specialized centers? More than 50% of serious auto injuries are already treated there!" But the author wouldn't be too troubled by that objection. She could say, "I want that system so that the other 49% of auto injuries can also be treated at special centers; also, currently anyone who gets injured on a mountain or a river or any non-automobile place has no way to get treated at those special centers, so I want the system to save their lives."

    9% picked this

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