June 1993 LSAT Section 1 Question 15

Economist: Some policymakers believe that our country's continued economic growth requires a higher level of personal...

ns120496 on November 19, 2021

Does this not include the possibility that he is citing past examples of these policies that failed?

"Yet, when similar tax–incentive programs were tried in the past, virtually all of the money invested through them was diverted from other personal savings, and the overall level of personal savings was unchanged."

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Emil-Kunkin on January 19, 2022

Hi @ns120496, you're right that the author is citing examples of the policy not having the desired impact. While this would appear to support D, let's take a look at how D is worded.

D tells us that the economist questions the judgement of the proposal's backers by pointing out past cases in which they advocated programs that failed. This is wrong for two reasons. The author is not actually questioning anyone's judgement, only saying that a policy would not have a certain effect. Furthermore, while the author does cite a past example of a policy failing, it is not a past example in which the backers advocated a policy that failed. We have no idea that the backers have ever advocated for any policies in the past. D looks like it is saying the author attacks the proposal based on its past failures. However, the text of D actually says the author attacks the backers of the proposal because they have been wrong in the past. This is not the argument the economist makes.

A is very general, but at a high level it is what the economist does. The proposal is based on the premise it will increase saving, and the author challenges this idea.