#26 - Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=14168)

The correct answer choice is (B)

The plan described in passage B involves selectively cutting the water to a few residences with
outstanding water bills (lines 42-48), and our job is to determine how the author of passage A would
view such a solution. Note that the plan entails discretionary enforcement, which is not directly
addressed in passage A. Nevertheless, we can draw parallels between discretionary enforcement and
discretionary nonenforcement in order to arrive at a suitable prephrase.

Answer choice (A): There is no reason why the author of passage A would delay implementing the
plan until after the legislature’s annual appropriations hearing.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. According to passage A, the main advantage
of discretionary nonenforcement results from reducing the social costs of overinclusion. The same
rationale probably applies to discretionary enforcement: cutting the water to a few select households
reduces the social costs of doing the same with all delinquent households.

Answer choice (C): Passage B contains no evidence that the water department has been enforcing
overinclusive rules to the letter.

Answer choice (D): It is the author of passage B, not passage A, who prefers placing liens on the
properties owned by those who are late paying their bills. Always be sure to understand whose
perspective the question stem is asking you to adopt, if any.

Answer choice (E): While this recommendation seems perfectly reasonable, there is no evidence that
the author of passage A would agree with it. On the contrary: as someone who regards very specific
laws as inherently underinclusive, she is unlikely to embrace the alternative proposal described here.

[al_godnessmary]

So is B the right answer to this question only because the other four choices are completely un-infer-able based on Passage A? The key to this question is "Enforcing an overinclusive rule to the letter could impose very heavy social costs," isn't it?

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hello,

Great job spotting the critical language here. You are right that the other answer choices are clearly wrong. Additionally, B is correct because it can be inferred from the text you highlighted. Good work!

[lemonade42]

Hi, What's the difference between discretionary enforcement (DE) vs. discretionary nonenforcement (DN)? My first confusion is about how do we know that DN is when law agencies are selectively choosing not to prosecute violators. Because to me, it sounds like the definition of DN in the end of the 2nd paragraph is only talking about the reducing overinclusion and is unrelated to how the law agencies are selectively choosing not to prosecute violators.

Also, how can we determine that passage B is showing DE?
Because if passage B is also talking about selectively choosing to cut off the water, isn't that also DN?

Also to confirm, the correct answer is (B) because Author A seems like they like to reduce social costs and since (B) is suggesting that the social costs are lower when water is shut off for the privileged, then A would agree with (B).

Sorry for all the questions! Thank you!

[Jeff Wren]

Hi lemonade,

It may be helpful for you to "zoom out" when reading passages in order to help get the big picture.

Here, to understand discretionary non-enforcement, you need to connect the term back to the first paragraph of Passage A for context.

The first paragraph of Passage A introduces the topic of this passage. Law enforcement agencies often choose not to prosecute certain violators of the law, and the author will attempt to explain why this occurs. This topic (agencies choosing not to prosecute certain people who violate the law) is discretionary non-enforcement (they literally are choosing not to enforce the law in some circumstances).

This is important to understand because when the actual term "discretionary non-enforcement" first appears in the passage (line 23), it is not defined at that point. The discussion of discretionary non-enforcement reducing the costs of overinclusion is not giving its definition; instead it is explaining why discretionary non-enforcement occurs.

The passage would have been easier to follow if it had started "Some law enforcement agencies choose not to prosecute certain violators of the law, a technique known as discretionary non-enforcement. I will attempt to explain why this occurs."

Discretionary enforcement would involve choosing to enforce a law in certain circumstances. As mentioned in the post above, it's not specifically addressed in Passage A, but it's basically the flip side of discretionary non-enforcement. If the law agency chooses to enforce some violators and not others at its discretion, then it is essentially engaging in both practices. I wouldn't worry about the differences for the purposes of this question.

You're correct that the key benefit of discretionary non-enforcement in Passage A is avoiding the heavy social costs of strictly enforcing overinclusive laws, and shutting off the water for all of the people who cannot pay would be an example of this heavy social cost.