Logical Reasoning

PT143 · S4 · Q15 Legislator: My staff conducted

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Legislator: My staff conducted a poll in which my constituents were asked whether they favor high taxes.

Conclusion

My constituents would support this bill that reduces the corporate income tax.

Evidence

In a poll, more than 97% of my constituents said they do not favor high taxes.

Evaluation

Given that 97% said they don't favor high taxes, how could we argue that the constituents largely would not support a bill that lowers corporate income tax?

The poll question was phrased generically (and was a leading question ... "Do you favor high taxes?" Of course not. That's like asking, )

So the overwhelming "No" doesn't tell us much about the constituents feelings on taxes.

However, another crucial question is how the constituents feel specifically about the corporate income tax. Maybe on the whole people don't like high taxes, but they're okay with high taxes on corporations.

We also don't know if the corporate income tax is currently something the people would consider "high". What if corporate income tax is like 8% while personal income tax is 28%. Would people likely support a reduction in that 8% rate? Of course not.

Goal

- is the corporate income tax actually "high"? - do people make an exception to their general antipathy towards high taxes and actually tolerate higher taxes for corporate income? - can we really take anything away from the survey, given how loaded a question the people were asked?

15.

The reasoning in the legislator's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument

  1. fails to establish that the

    Out Of Scope

    Out Of Scope: country as a whole Since the conclusion is only about the constituents, we only care about the constituents. It doesn't matter whether they are or aren't representative of any other group.

    3% picked this

  2. Correct

    fails to consider whether the

    Why this is right

    This points out a huge missing assumption: is the corporate income tax considered a "high" tax? The author is trying to use the survey results to argue that "People do not favor [the corporate income tax, as is]. Thus, they will support my lowering of it." That hinges on whether the corporate income tax is considered a "high tax". If we say "no, they don't consider the current corporate tax rate to be high", that would crush this argument.

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

    76% picked this

  3. confuses an absence of evidence

    Doesn't Match

    This is describing the famous flaw of Unproven vs Proven False. Had the argument committed this flaw, it would have sounded like, "Since there's no strong evidence that my constituents oppose this bill, they must support it". But the author didn't use a lack of counterevidence as her premise. She used a poll that says that her constituents don't favor high taxes.

    15% picked this

  4. draws a conclusion that merely

    Doesn't Match

    This is describing the famous flaw of Circular Reasoning. Had the argument committed this flaw, it would have sounded like, "My constituents clearly support my bill, since my bill is the sort of thing that voters in my area endorse." If the conclusion had merely restated the premise, then the conclusion would have been about the poll, instead of being about the bill.

    1% picked this

  5. treats a result that proves

    Backwards

    The author treats a result that is merely consistent with public support as though it proves that the public supports it. An LSAT author treats her evidence as though it illustrates her conclusion.

    4% picked this

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