Raphaela: Forcing people to help others is morally wrong.

Question

Raphaela: Forcing people to help others is morally wrong. Therefore, no government has the right to redistribute resources via taxation. Anyone who wants can help others voluntarily.

Edward: Governments do have that right, insofar as they give people the freedom to leave and hence not to live under their authority.

Raphaela and Edward disagree about the truth of which one of the following?

A. Any government that does not permit emigration would be morally wrong to redistribute resources via taxation.
B. Any government that permits emigration has the right to redistribute resources via taxation
C. Every government should allow people to help others voluntarily
D. Any government that redistributes resources via taxation forces people to help others.
E. Any government that forces people to help others should permit emigration.

yogesh610 · Answer

Why is the answer B.I need help. Somebody please explain why????????

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ganand · Answer

Hi  yogesh610 ,

Let's summarise the statements first.

Raphaela supports  voluntarily works  and opposes  government taxation scheme for redistributing resources.

Edward supports  government taxation process .

Clearly, the point of conflict is whether to support government taxation system or not.

Option B is very similar to the statement made by Edward. Hence, Edward and Raphaela would disagree about the truth of statement B.

Hope it helps.

nazgull · Answer

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

rohan2345 · Answer

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.

AshutoshB · Answer

I dont understand how B is the answer

GMATNinja · 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).

Arunava7393 · Answer

GMATNinja

Thanks a lot.

Arunava7393 · Answer

A and B seems close? or am i missing something?

GMATNinja · Answer

Edward says that governments " give  people the freedom to leave and hence not to live under their authority." And that is why Edward believes that governments DO have the right to redistribute resources via taxation. In other words, Edwards believes that governments have the right to redistribute resources via taxation  because  those governments give people the freedom to leave.

If Country Y allows emigration, Edward will argue that Y's government has the right to redistribute resources via taxation. Raphaela will disagree, because she believes that no country has the right to redistribute resources via taxation (regardless of whether emigration is permitted).

If Country X does NOT allow emigration (so its people do NOT have the freedom to leave), then Edward will argue that X's government does NOT have the right to redistribute resources via taxation. Raphaela would also argue that X's government does NOT have the right to redistribute resources via taxation (again, she believes that NO country has that right).

Edward and Raphaela would AGREE that it is morally wrong for X's government to redistribute resources via taxation, so (A) is out.

AnkitNandwani1 · Answer

(A)  “Any government that does not permit emigration would be morally wrong to redistribute resources via taxation.”
 
 Raphaela: Would agree (all governments wrong, regardless of emigration). 
 Edward: Would also agree (without emigration, no right). 
 → They  agree , so not the answer.  
 (B)  “Any government that permits emigration has the right to redistribute resources via taxation.”
 
 Raphaela: Disagrees (no government has that right, period). 
 Edward: Agrees (emigration gives them that right). 
 →  Direct point of disagreement. Correct.   
 (C)  “Every government should allow people to help others voluntarily.”
 
 Both agree (Raphaela explicitly; Edward doesn’t challenge it). 
 → Not a disagreement.  
 (D)  “Any government that redistributes resources via taxation forces people to help others.”
 
 Raphaela: Believes yes (her whole premise). 
 Edward: Doesn’t dispute this — he accepts taxation as force, just thinks emigration makes it legitimate. 
 → No disagreement.  
 (E)  “Any government that forces people to help others should permit emigration.”
 
 Edward: Would agree (freedom to leave is his condition). 
 Raphaela: Might also agree — but her argument doesn’t hinge on emigration at all, she says taxation is always wrong. But does she  disagree ? Not necessarily, since she could think "forcing is wrong, and whether or not emigration is allowed, it's still wrong." She’s silent, but not in contradiction. 
 → Not a clear disagreement.

Raphaela: Forcing people to help others is morally wrong.

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Raphaela: Forcing people to help others is morally wrong.

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