Economist: Government intervention in the free market in pursuit of socially desirable goals can affect supply and demand, thereby distorting prices. ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ █████████████ ██████████ ████ █████████ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ██ █ ████ ██ ████████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ █████████████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ████████████ ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ██ ████████
The author draws an analogy between the ethics of administering medicine and the ethics of government intervention. Since most medicines have both harmful and beneficial effects, using a medicine is justified only when not using it would cause a lot more harm than using it. Similarly, since government intervention in the free market for the purpose of social engineering can distort prices, such intervention is justified only when failure to intervene causes a lot more harm than the intervention.
We’re looking to fill in the concerning what is required in order for government intervention in the free market to be justified. Based on the analogy to medicine, we can conclude that government intervention is justified only when the failure to intervene is a lot more harmful than intervention.
Which one of the following ████ █████████ █████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██████
would likely be ████████ ██ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████████
Unsupported. The analogy doesn’t condition the ethical use of medicine on approval, so it doesn’t make sense to complete the analogy with a comment on approval.
has been shown ██ ████ ███ ██ ███ █████████████ ███████ ███████
Unsupported. The analogy conditions the ethical use of medicine on a comparison between using medicine vs. not using the medicine. So it doesn’t make sense to complete the analogy with a comment that doesn’t involve a comparison between intervention and not having intervention.
is believed unlikely ██ █████████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ ████████
Unsupported. The analogy conditions the ethical use of medicine on a comparison between using medicine vs. not using the medicine. So it doesn’t make sense to complete the analogy with a comment that doesn’t involve a comparison between intervention and not having intervention.
would do less ██████ ████ █████ ██████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███ ███████████
Strongly supported. Use of medicine is ethical only when not using it is more harmful than using it. Similarly, intervention is ethical only when not intervening is more harmful than intervening.
provides a solution ██ ████ █████████ █████████ ███████
Unsupported. The analogy does not condition the ethical use of medicine on the provision of a solution. The requirement involve comparing the harm of using medicine vs. not using it. So it doesn’t make sense to complete the analogy with a comment on solutions.
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