Raphaela: Forcing people to help others

I understood the argument but I'm unable to understand the ask over here. Please help with each of the options provided.

Hi nazgulISB ,

Let’s Summarise the argument.

Raphaela is of the opinion that government cannot force people to help others. Hence the government should not distribute tax money and indeed leave it to people to help others voluntarily.

Edward disagrees as he believes that the government does have the right as long as they are giving people the freedom to leave and not live in their authority. In other words the government is allowing emigration.

A- Any government that does not permit emigration would be morally wrong to redistribute resources via taxation- Incorrect.
This answer choice is tempting - as it states Edwards position, however Raphaela would agree with this (it doesn't say "only governments that do not permit emigration...)

B- Any government that permits emigration has the right to redistribute resources via taxation- Correct.
This answer choice correctly names the point of disagreement - Edward feels that governments that allow emigration are entitled to tax people, while Raphaela states that no government has the right.

C- Every government should allow people to help others voluntarily- Incorrect
This choice is too broad for either point of view.
Nothing in the passage justifies this choice. Further avoid answer choices that use extremely strong words such as ‘Every government etc’ as the passage doesn’t support such strong words.

D- Any government that redistributes resources via taxation forces people to help others- Incorrect.
This is a tricky one! This one is wrong because the scope of the disagreement is on whether governments have the right to redistribute not on whether taxation forces people to help others. Edward may agree with this, but still thinks government has the right we dont know his position.

E- Any government that forces people to help others should permit emigration.- Incorrect.
This choice does not express either point of view. It's too broad as it discusses simply helping others, not taxation. Out of scope.

Hope this helps.

I dont understand how B is the answer

First, let's look at Raphaela's argument:

• Forcing people to help others is morally wrong.
• According to Raphaela, redistributing resources via taxation is an example of forcing people to help others (i.e. if you are forced to pay taxes and some of your tax money goes towards helping people, then you are effectively being forced to help others).
• Since forcing people to help others is morally wrong, redistributing resources via taxation is morally wrong.
• Thus, no government has the right to redistribute resources via taxation.

According to Edward, governments aren't really FORCING anyone to pay taxes. If people don't want to help others with tax money, they can simply leave the country. In other words, people can decide whether they want to live in a country whose government redistributes resources via taxation.

So according to Edward, as long as government allows its people to leave, then the government essentially allows its people to choose whether they want to help others via taxes. However, if a government does NOT allow its people to leave, then Edward would agree that such a government is not allowing its people to choose whether they want to help others via taxes.

To summarize:

Raphaela: Any government that taxes its people is forcing its people to help others.
Edwards: Any government that taxes its people AND prevents its people from leaving is forcing its people to help others.
Edwards: Any government that taxes its people but does NOT prevent its people from leaving is NOT forcing its people to help others.

So Raphaela and Edwards would agree about a government that taxes its people AND prevents its people from leaving. But they would disagree about a government that taxes its people but ALLOWS its people to leave (i.e. allows its people to emigrate). This is consistent with choice (B).

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.