Mayor of Plainsville: In order to help the economy of Plainsville, I am using some of our tax revenues to help bring ...
megmcdermottSeptember 28, 2019
Why A?
Could someone please explain why A would be the correct answer? I chose B when answering the question but still don't understand why A would be correct
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The mayor of Plainsville has a strategy to help the town's economy. He will build a major highway through town to attract new businesses.
The citizens' group concludes that the mayor must have an ulterior motive for his plan, based on the claim that a business park will bring in twice the business of the highway.
The question stem wants us to choose a principle that supports the conclusion. Which principle implies that the mayor has a reason other than helping the economy?
Let's look at B. Does this principle support the citizens' group? I don't believe it does. We already knew that both the highway and the business park would require tax revenues. This does not give us any new information to work with.
I'll explain why A is correct. When I first read the passage, I immediately had some problems with the citizens' group's conclusion. The mayor could have a perfectly good reason for choosing the highway over the business park, even if it attracts less business. Maybe the business park will gentrify the neighborhood. Maybe it will require the destruction of an animal shelter. We don't have enough information to assume the mayor is corrupt.
Yet, we need a principle which suggests that he does have an ulterior motive. We need something that eliminates the possibilities that I just listed. Answer choice A gives us that principle. "Anyone really pursuing a cause will choose the means that that person believes will advance the cause the farthest." As applied to our scenario, if the mayor wants to attract business, he will choose the option that brings in as much business as possible. Period. This eliminates the concerns I listed above. We don't care about gentrification, we don't care about the animal shelter. If the mayor doesn't attract as much business as possible, then he is not really trying to attract business at all. This principle is silly in reality, but in the context of this question, it supports the argument of the citizens' group.
SkylarSeptember 28, 2019
@megmcdermott Happy to help! Let's take a look.
The Mayor says that he/she is going to help the economy of Plainsville by using revenues to build a highway that will attract new business. The citizens' group argues that the proposed highway would only bring in half of the business that a new business park would, and therefore the mayor must have other interests beyond the town's economy in mind.
You might immediately notice a jump in logic in the citizens' group's response. They use the fact that the mayor is not enacting the most efficient plan to conclude that the mayor has alternative interests. In claiming this, the group fails to consider that the mayor may have true intentions but did not think of a business park, or found the business park to be unrealistic, or simply preferred the highway project. In other words, it is a jump to assume that the mayor has other interests in consideration simply because his/her plan was not the most economically efficient plan. Answer (A) provides a principle to explain this jump, making it the correct choice. It reads "Anyone really pursuing a cause will choose the means that that person believes will advance the cause the farthest." Using (A), we can see clearly how the mayor not choosing the plan that would most advance the economic cause would translate to his/her not truly pursuing the cause and instead considering outside interests.
Answer choice (B) reads "Any goal that includes helping the economy of a community will require public revenues in order to be achieved." This does not relate to the gap in logic between providing the most effective plan and having only one interest in mind, therefore it is irrelevant and incorrect. Moreover, we see that both the highway plan and the new business plan require public revenues, so (B) does not add to the context of this question. Remember, we are looking only for the principle that justifies the citizens' group's conclusion.
Does this make sense? Please reach out with any additional questions!
LeeLarueJune 10, 2020
@SamA or @Skylar is it Principle Question Strengthen or Principle Question Strengthen with Sufficient? I thought The Regular strengthen because it says "would most help," but does not have to guarantee the conclusion?
