It is not correct that the people of the United States, relative to

Question

It is not correct that the people of the United States, relative to comparable countries, are the most lightly taxed. True, the United States has the lowest tax, as percent of gross domestic product, of the Western industrialized countries, but tax rates alone do not tell the whole story. People in the United States pay out of pocket for many goods and services provided from tax revenues elsewhere. Consider universal health care, which is an entitlement supported by tax revenues in every other Western industrialized country. United States government health-care expenditures are equivalent to about 5 percent of the gross domestic product, but private health-care expenditures represent another 7 percent. This 7 percent, then, amounts to a tax.

The argument concerning whether the people of the United States are the most lightly taxed is most vulnerable to which one of the following criticisms?

(A) It bases a comparison on percentages rather than on absolute numbers

(B) It unreasonably extends the application of a key term

(C) It uses negatively charged language instead of attempting to give a reason

(D) It generalizes from only a few instances

(E) It sets up a dichotomy between alternatives that are not exclusive

VidyaSV · Answer

Can someone provide an explanation for this ?
I chose option D, because it took the instance of Health care and went on to conclude that United Stated are lightly taxed

nightblade354 · Answer

It is not correct that the people of the United States, relative to comparable countries, are the most lightly taxed. True, the United States has the lowest tax, as percent of gross domestic product, of the Western industrialized countries, but tax rates alone do not tell the whole story. People in the United States pay out of pocket for many goods and services provided from tax revenues elsewhere. Consider universal health care, which is an entitlement supported by tax revenues in every other Western industrialized country. United States government health-care expenditures are equivalent to about 5 percent of the gross domestic product, but private health-care expenditures represent another 7 percent. This 7 percent, then, amounts to a tax.

C: It is not correct that the people of the United States, relative to comparable countries, are the most lightly taxed
P: Literally everything else: Because the US pays for other services that don't count, but count for other countries, therefore the critics are wrong.

WRONG. It still isn't a tax being applied, which is the error we are looking for.

The argument concerning whether the people of the United States are the most lightly taxed is most vulnerable to which one of the following criticisms?

(A) It bases a comparison on percentages rather than on absolute numbers --  Nope, we are dealing with percentages so this is wrong.

(B) It unreasonably extends the application of a key term --  Perfect! It is saying that a key term, in this case tax, is being applied in another way (Because we don't count something that others do, therefore we are going to count it). But this isn't a tax because that is not how taxes work and that is not how definitions work. This is absolutely the answer.

(C) It uses negatively charged language instead of attempting to give a reason --  Nothing in here is negative but even if it was negative, would that be a flaw in an argument? Would that be enough to tip the scales? Probably not. So I can't see this being right in any instance. 
 
(D)  It generalizes from only a few instances -- We are comparing the US vs other countries, so this isn't committing a "too few" or "biased" response.

(E) It sets up a dichotomy between alternatives that are not exclusive --  This is an either/or error. But the argument isn't saying that you cannot have one if you have the other so this is wrong. An example of this would be: If Jack goes to the party, then Meghan doesn't go. The logic: J -->  M  OR M -->  J

Pankaj0901 · Answer

This was a bouncer for me. While I understood the passage well, I couldn't understand how the answer is B.

Muskkann · Answer

Still I'm confused why the answer is B ...😶

Posted from my mobile device

gurugmat · Answer

Hi Pankaj
Author concludes that People in US are not taxed less than people in other countries. He draws his conclusion based on the premise that people in the United States pay out of pocket for expenses that other countries pay for with tax amount. Here he equates American people using their own money to pay for their health care to paying tax. He extends the application of the term 'tax.' This is the flaw in author's argument. Option B says that and it is the right answer choice.

Genivs1 · Answer

So I'll share my reasoning and hopefully this helps. In the sentences: " United States government health-care expenditures are equivalent to about 5 percent of the gross domestic product, but private health-care expenditures represent another 7 percent. This 7 percent, then, amounts to a tax." When the author says that the 7% private health-care expenditures amounts to tax -> this is not necessarily true. Suppose the total private health-care expenditures was 100 million, and the tax rate was 30% then the total tax would be about 30 million. According to the author this full amount (7% or 100 million) would amount to tax, yet clearly only 30 million amounts to tax. Thus B is the correct answer because the argument unreasonably extends the application of a key term: tax to mean the full 7% rather than only a portion of it which actually amounts to tax. Hope this helps! And good luck to ya'll in your prep, you got this!

VerbalBot · Answer

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It is not correct that the people of the United States, relative to

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