The burden of maintaining the U.S. highway system falls disproportiona

Question

The burden of maintaining the U.S. highway system falls disproportionately on the trucking industry. Trucks represent only about 10 percent of the vehicles on U.S. roads. Yet road use taxes assessed on trucks amount to almost half the taxes paid for highway upkeep and repair.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument above?

(A) The trucking industry has enjoyed record after-tax profits in three of the past four years.
(B) Because of their weight, trucks cause over 50 percent of the damage sustained by highway surfaces each year.
(C) Without an economically viable trucking industry, the cost of goods in the United States would rise significantly.
(D) Road use taxes paid by trucking companies have decreased by 3 percent over the past five years.
(E) Due to years of neglect, U.S. highways today are badly in need of major repairs and rebuilding.

iamchinu97 · Accepted Answer

Argument  : The burden of maintaining the U.S. highway system falls disproportionately on the trucking industry. Trucks represent only about 10 percent of the vehicles on U.S. roads. Yet road use taxes assessed on trucks amount to almost half the taxes paid for highway upkeep and repair.

Conclusion  : The burden of maintaining the U.S. highway system falls disproportionately on the trucking industry
Reasoning author gives or premise:
1. Truck 10% of all vehicles on road.
2. And road uses almost half of the taxes collected from trucks in upkeep and repair.

Question : Weaken the argument
 Prethinking : lets think about when authors conclusion will break? when can we say that the burden is not disproportionate?
what if truck are causing more damage to roads compared to author vehicle. so proportionally they should pay more in upkeep and repair?

Answer : B matches with our prethinking so ans is B

DinoPen · Answer

I said B.

My Notes:
Trucking industry is disproportionately burdened with highway maintenance. 
Trucks represent 10% of the vehicles on roads
Trucks pay half the taxes on highway upkeep.

The argument states that the trucking industry should not be burdened with higher taxes for highway maintenance because they only represent 10% of the vehicles on the roads. And, the trucking industry pays for half of the upkeep. This is unfair. 
Answers A,C,D,E support the trucking industries claim.

mellowmev · Answer

B weakens the argument by providing a justification for why trucks pay a disproportionate share of road use taxes. If trucks cause over 50 percent of the damage to highways due to their weight, it would be reasonable for them to pay almost half of the taxes for highway upkeep. This information suggests that the trucking industry's tax burden is proportionate to the damage they cause, thus weakening the claim that they are unfairly burdened.
The other options do not directly address the relationship between the taxes paid by the trucking industry and the damage they cause to the highways. Therefore, (B) is the correct answer because it directly challenges the claim of a disproportionate burden by linking the tax contribution to the actual damage caused by trucks.

VerbalBot · Answer

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The burden of maintaining the U.S. highway system falls disproportiona

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