Self-study
Politician: Conclusion We should impose a tariff on imported fruit to make it cost consumers more than domestic fruit. ██████████ ███████ ████ █████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ ███████ ███ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████ █████████ ██ ████ █████████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ █ ██████ ███ ██ █████
Summary
The politician argues that we should impose a tariff on imported fruit. As support, she says that without tariffs, domestic farmers will go out of business, farmland will be used for more profitable industry, and a unique way of life will be lost.
Notable Assumptions
The politician concludes that we should impose tariffs, in spite of their economic consequences. Without tariffs, fruit will be cheaper and farmland will be used for more profitable purposes. To reach her conclusion, the politician must assume that other concerns— like farmers going out of business and a unique way of life disappearing— outweigh the economic consequences of imposing tariffs.
So, her argument closely conforms to the principle that sometimes, certain social factors are more important than certain economic factors.
23.
The politician's recommendation most closely ████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
A country should ███ ███ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████
Without tariffs, fruit will be cheaper and farmland will be used for something more profitable. So it’s actually in the country’s own economic interest not to impose tariffs. Since the politician is in favor of tariffs, (A) can’t describe the principle her argument conforms to.
b
The interests of █████████ ██████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████
This is far too broad. We can’t assume that the politician thinks producers’ interests should always take precedence over consumers’ interests. Tariffs may support the interests of domestic producers, but they likely don’t support the interests of producers in other countries.
c
Social concerns should █████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ███████████
The politician supports tariffs— despite their economic consequences— because without them, farmers will lose their land and a unique way of life will be lost. This conforms to the principle that social concerns should sometimes take precedence over economic efficiency.
d
A country should ███ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███ ████████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████
Domestic growers and consumers are both citizens. Tariffs may support domestic growers’ interests, but they likely don’t support consumers’ interests. Instead of (D), the politician thinks that her country should put certain social interests ahead of certain economic interests.
e
Government intervention sometimes ███████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ████ ████████
This contradicts the politician’s argument. She concedes that government intervention in the form of tariffs will reduce economic efficiency in her country.