Self-study
Letter to the editor: You say that if the government were to confiscate a portion of the wages of convicted burglars when they reenter the workforce, it would be a form of stealing, hence an abuse of power. ███ █████ ███ ████████ ███ █████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██████████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ████████████ █ ███████ ██ █████████ █████ ████ █ ████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ █████ ██ ██████████
Summary
The author concludes that, even if it’s stealing, it’s okay for the government to take money from burglars’ paychecks. Why? It would be for a good cause—funding a program to help repay burglary victims.
Notable Assumptions
The author wants to prove that it’s okay to steal in some instances, but she doesn’t provide us with a premise that tells us what those instances are. She’s assuming that stealing for the purpose of repaying burglary victims makes it okay, so our answer choice will articulate this assumption:
Stealing is okay if it’s for a good cause.
15.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████
a
Money stolen from █ ███████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ████ █████████ ████████
Wrong trigger. The money from burglars’ paychecks will be put into a fund to help out victims in general. It won’t be given to each specific burglar’s victims, so we can’t use this rule.
b
Burglars are obligated ██ ███████ ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████ ████ ███████████
Wrong trigger. The money from burglars’ paychecks will be put into a fund to help out victims in general. It won’t be given to each specific burglar’s victims, so we can’t use this rule.
c
The motive prompting ██ ██████ ██████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████
(C) is slightly broader than our prediction, but that’s okay for this question type. This rule applies to all actions, and stealing from burglars is a subset of all actions. As such, if the motive decides whether an action is okay or not, then the motive of helping out burglary victims makes stealing from burglars okay.
d
A crime is █████████ ████ ██ ██ ██ █ █████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ███ ███████ █████████████
Leads to the wrong conclusion. If the sufficient and necessary conditions were swapped, this would support our conclusion; (D), however, only lets us prove that stealing from burglars is not justified, not that it is.
e
Stealing is never █████████ ████ ██ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ███ ████ █ ████████ ███████
(E) hurts our argument. If stealing is never justified, then why is it suddenly okay to steal from burglars?