Logical Reasoning

PT155 · S2 · Q2 Javier: Government workers are paid

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Javier: Government workers are paid higher hourly wages than comparable private sector employees.

Javier's 1st claim

Govt workers are paid higher hourly wages than comparable private sector employees. Does Mykayla say that private sector employees are paid at least as much as govt employees for comparable work?

No, not in a sweeping way, although she would say that private sector employees currently being contracted by the government are paid at least as much as government employees would be for that work.

Javier's 2nd claim

The govt could save money by hiring private contractors to perform services now performed by government employees. Does Mykayla say that the government wouldn't be saving money if they were to hire private contractors to perform services currently done by government employees?

Yes, she's making that objection. She's saying, . They're paying more for contractors than they would to pay government employees to perform comparable services.

Goal

Let's look for or saying .

Javier and Mykayla disagree with each other over whether

the government could reduce spending
Out of Scope
Out of Scope: reduce employees on payroll Both people would presumably agree to the truth of this common sense claim. If you reduce your payroll, you're almost invariably reducing your spending (all other things being equal). We wouldn't want to equate "reduce number of employees on payroll" with "hire private contractors to do the work currently being done by the government".
0% picked this
Correct
the government would save money
Why this is right
Javier would clearly say YES to this claim, since it is his second sentence. And Mykayla would seemingly say NO to this claim, since she is saying "currently, that's not the case. The government is not saving money by hiring private contractors. In fact, the government is spending more money on these private contractors than they would to pay government employees to perform comparable work.
Skill tested: Agree/Disagree · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
96% picked this
government workers generally are paid
Too Strong: generally Unsupported Person 2
Javier would agree with this because it is his first sentence. But Mykayla never gets into the hourly wage comparison between government employees and comparable private sector ones. She only says that what we currently spend on private contracting (only a tiny percentage of the private sector is working for government contracts) is more than what it would cost for that work to be done by government employees. But we have no idea if she means that because she thinks that government workers, more than 50% of the time (generally), have a lower hourly wage.
2% picked this
every service that is currently
Too Strong: every
Neither author has committed to agreeing to the extreme claim that "every single thing that government employees can do can be performed by private contractors". Given that this claim is only about what's possible, they're likely to agree on this anyway. The disagreement isn't about what's possible, it's about what's more cost-effective.
0% picked this
the total amount of money
Out of Scope: total amount
Javier hasn't made any comments that would tell us what he believes about comparing total amounts of money spent. He was only talking about comparing hourly wages. Mykayla has only talked about comparing the total amount of money the government would spend to have its employees do the work currently done by private contractors, to the total amount of money being paid to those private contractors. She hasn't talked about the total amount of money the government pays (all of) its employees annually.
1% picked this

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