Logical Reasoning

PT5 · S3 · Q25 Situation: In the island nation of Bezun

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Situation: In the island nation of Bezun, the government taxes gasoline heavily in order to induce people not to drive.

Situation

Bezun heavily taxes gasoline to discourage driving (objective 1) and uses the revenue to subsidize electricity and reduce its price (objective 2).

Analysis

The greater the success at objective 1, the less success at objective 2.

Evaluate

The more we discourage driving, the less gasoline tax we'll collect, so we'll have less revenue to subsidize electricity costs.

Goal

Find the answer with the same logic that the better you do at your first goal, the less well you'll do at your second goal.

25.

The analysis provided for the situation above would be most appropriate in which one of the following situations?

  1. A library charges a late

    Bad Description

    The more success we have with our late fee, the more that borrowers will return books promptly. That we'll give us less money to send out reminders to tardy borrowers, but we don't necessarily need to send out reminders because they are returning their books more promptly. Even though success at the first goal means less revenue for the second goal, the two goals are the same: reducing overdue books. The two objectives are aligned, not in tension. In the original, the gas tax discourages driving while the revenue funds a separate goal (cheap electricity); success at driving-reduction does not help electricity prices. Here, both objectives serve the same end, so success on one would arguably help the other (or be neutral), not undermine it.

    17% picked this

  2. A mail-order store imposes a

    Bad Description

    There isn't really a second goal here, unless we call it "dealing with the extra expense of overnight delivery". But that means that success at our first goal actually contributes to success with our second goal too. The more we succeed at discouraging overnight delivery, the less we'll have to deal with the extra expense of overnight delivery. There isn't a separate objective that we can no longer fund (like subsidizing electricity). By discouraging an action (overnight delivery), we are also reducing the need to raise money to pay for that action.

    14% picked this

  3. The park management charges an

    Bad Description

    In this scenario, it sort of sounds like the 2nd goal (financing new projects) is deliberately kept separate from the 1st goal (raising funds to contribute to the park's upkeep). The success we have in charging fees and funding park upkeep has nothing to do with the 2nd goal of financing new projects.

    4% picked this

  4. A restaurant adds a service

    Bad Description

    It feels like these two goals work harmoniously. The more that customers pay a service charge, the more money we have to divide up among the workers to augment their wages.

    5% picked this

  5. Correct

    The highway administration charges a

    Why this is right

    The more successful we are at discouraging people from using the bridge, the less toll money we'll collect. And that means we'll have less money to spend on building a new bridge. By successfully discouraging people from doing something using a toll / tax, we end up collecting less money, which undermines our ability to use that money to pay for something else (a new bridge / electricity subsidies).

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

    61% picked this

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