Self-paced
Economist: Currently, many countries rely primarily on taxing income to fund government expenditures. ███ ██████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███ ███████████ ██████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████ █████ █████ █████████ ████████ ███ ████ █████████ █████████ ██████ █████ █████████ ██ █████████ █████ ██████████ ███ ███ ████ ███ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ ██ ████████ █████ ███████ ██████ ██████ ████████
Summary
Many countries primarily rely on income tax to support government spending. Income taxation does not promote savings and investment. In contrast, a consumption tax would encourage savings. In these countries, the biggest challenge is improving their economies. The only way to accomplish this is to increase their savings rates.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Hence, many countries should focus more on taxing consumption as opposed to income.
16.
Which one of the following ████ █████████ █████████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
most governments should ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████████
This answer is unsupported. First, the economist discusses "many" countries, not "most." Second, we don't know if governments even tax savings and investment to begin with.
b
the economies of █████████ ████ ███████ ███████ ██ █████ ███████████ █████ ███ ████████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ ██████████
This answer is unsupported. The economist presents increasing savings as a necessary condition for economic improvement, not as sufficient.
c
in most countries █████ ██ ███████████ █████ █████ █████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████ ██████████ ████████████
This answer is unsupported. We have no idea how much money a consumption tax would bring in, nor how much money countries need.
d
the tax laws ██ ████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ██████ ███████████ ██████ ████ ██████
This answer is strongly supported. Economic improvement is the "most important" goal for many countries, so we can infer that they should pursue that goal. More savings is necessary for improvement, and taxing consumption encourages savings.
e
it is detrimental ██ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████
This answer is unsupported. First, the economist never indicates that income taxation is actively detrimental. Second, "any" country is way too strong.