#7 - It is not correct that the people of the United States

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Flaw in the Reasoning. The correct answer choice is (B)

In this stimulus the conclusion is stated in the first sentence, and then the author fails to support the claim. The conclusion is that the American people are not the most lightly taxed, but the second sentence seems to contradict this claim. The author tries to demonstrate that American people pay out of pocket for expenses that other countries pay for with tax dollars. However, American people using their own money to pay for their health care does not equate to paying a tax. The author's conclusion does not follow because it involves tax, and American's do have the lowest tax rate according to his evidence. Obviously, his argument has merit in saying that Americans may not have it any easier than citizens of other countries, but it does not have any evidence to support the fact that Americans are not the most lightly taxed. He tries to stretch the definition of tax to include out of pocket health care expenditures, and this is the flaw in his argument.

Answer choice (A) His argument is not based on numbers; he is actually arguing (unsuccessfully) against the numbers he cites. Whether he uses percentages or numbers does not affect the argument.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. The author extends the application of "tax" to apply to out-of-pocket health-care expenditures, which is an unreasonable extension. This extension is necessary for the conclusion to follow; therefore, the conclusion does not follow because this extension is unreasonable.

Answer choice (C) This is not a flaw in the reasoning. The author does offer reasons for his conclusion; they just involve an unreasonable extension of the word "tax."

Answer choice (D) Although only one example is given, the author does not generalize from it. She is simply offering one example of Americans paying for services that other countries pay for with tax dollars.

Answer choice (E) This would be an answer choice for an either/or fallacy, but does not apply in this instance. The author in fact attempts to show that two alternatives are not exclusive by stating that Americans are the most lightly taxed according to percentage but not the most lightly "taxed" when you consider other aspects of "tax."

[Johnclem]

Hello,
Just a quick question with regards to AC -D. If the author was using a few examples rather than just one..would this be the correct answer ? I just don't see how it's not a generalization when he is giving a specific example and making a general claim about the tax in US.


Thanks,
John

[Shannon Parker]

Hi John,

In this stimulus the author is not drawing any inferences from the example that he cites, simply using it as an example of out of pocket expenses that the Americans pay, that other countries pay for through their taxes, then jumping to the conclusion that the amount that Americans privately pay for healthcare should be included in the amount that Americans pay for taxes.

~Shannon

[Curtis1992]

Hello Powerscore,

I am a little perplexed as to why answer choice B for question 39 on page 7-90 in the online powerscore course is correct. I have read over the explanation a few times and for some reason, I am just not understanding why the comparison of using out-of-pocket expenses for health care is unreasonable when being compared to healthcare that is gathered through a tax?

If someone could explain it in different words that would be great.

Curtis

[James Finch]

Hi Curtis,

Just to be clear, the author of the stimulus is calling services not provided by the government, in this case health care, a "tax" because in other countries those services would be paid for by the government. The issue here is that labeling private health-care expenditures a "tax" goes well beyond any generally understood meaning of the term. Taxes are mandatory fees paid to governments by individuals or corporations, usually based on some kind of economic activity. In the United States, individuals are taxed on income and purchases (sales tax), and both individuals and corporations are taxed on profits.

To extend this definition to private purchases, such as health care, housing or food, simply because the government does not provide these necessities, is absurd; in fact, these private transactions are closer to being the opposite of taxes. Answer choice (B) reflects the flawed use of "tax" to describe private health care costs in the United States.

Hope this helps!

[sdb606]

Why D is wrong?

Even if you accept the new definition of tax, my thinking was the US could still be the most lightly taxed even in spite of including private healthcare costs as a tax. Therefore, the author is going to far in saying the US is the most lightly taxed because he is extrapolating for only a single example (private healthcare costs).

[Adam Tyson]

When an answer describes generalizing, we need to see if the stimulus takes certain specific instances and then draws a conclusion that is broader in scope than those instances can support. A typical overgeneralization flaw would apply those specific instances to ALL cases. For example, if my dog barks a lot and my friend's dog barks a lot, it would be an overgeneralization if I were then to say that all dogs must bark a lot.

No such thing happens in this case. The author isn't pointing out one or two instances of something and then claiming that those instances are illustrative of all such things. The evidence is something about the United States (health care is not provided to everyone supported by tax revenues) that is used to counter a claim about the United States (that it is lightly taxed). That doesn't bear the markings of an overgeneralization.

One more thing about this answer type, and that is that it is usually a wrong answer, largely because it is so easy to believe is correct. If we aren't looking too closely, almost every argument could sound like it commits this flaw. "Your evidence isn't good enough to support that conclusion" is just one step away from saying "that's just a generalization," but we need to be more narrow and specific in our focus than that. There is almost always a better, more accurate answer choice available, as there is in this case with answer B.

[ally.ni]

Does Answer choice E occur in the stimulus but is incorrect because it is not a flaw of the argument?

[Adam Tyson]

I'm not seeing any false dilemma in this stimulus, ally.ni. The author has not presented two options as if they are exclusive, failing to consider other options. So this answer is not correct because it is not true, in that it describes a problem that did not occur in the argument.