PT72.S1.Q26-- flat tax vs progressive tax

Darklord

Hi,
The answer here was B, but I chose D. Can anyone help explain to me why B is right and D is wrong? For context:

Here was my reasoning for why I thought D was right:
I thought that passage A would agree-- on line 13, he describes an argument that explains that progressive taxes make rich pay more, he never disputes that fact, and later on in the last paragraph, he even implies that progressive makes rich pay more by talking about how progressive gives rich more incentives to try to cheat the system than flat tax would.
In addition, I thought passage B would disagree-- on line 34, he says that progressive treats all taxpayers equally.

Here was my reasoning for why I thought B was wrong:
I knew for sure that passage B would agree on this issue (line 56). However, I wasn't sure if passage A would agree or disagree since in the last paragraph of passage A, it seems that passage A is saying that MOST rich people in flat tax systems (line 27-- denoted by the word "usually") pay the same as people in progressive tax systems. In addition, the fact that rich people in flat tax systems, without any apparent tax dodging, pay about the same as progressively taxed rich people, shows that they would normally pay less had the progressively taxed rich people had not dodged. Thus, this COULD mean that SOME rich people in progressive tax systems still pay more than rich people in flat tax systems, making passage A a bit ambiguous on this issue.

Help

Thanks!
Best regards

Admin Note: https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-72-section-1-passage-4-questions/

Ashley2018-1

I hate this passage. My lack of economics background really dug me in.

We're trying to pick a choice the authors would DISAGREE with. (Agree, Disagree and vice versa). I narrowed things down to B and D which, judging by your response, I am assuming a good portion of people have done. Answer choice B states that high-income earners would pay LESS under a flat tax system than under a progressive (graduated) system. Passage A would disagree (last sentence states that high-income earners usually pay ABOUT AS MUCH...) and Passage B would say high-income people would pay LESS (Line 56).

As for D, Passage A AND B would both DISAGREE. Passage A states towards the end (again) that high-income people pay about the same and B states that "people in higher brackets don't pay the higher rate on their ENTIRE income, only..." (Lines 36-37).