Critical Reasoning

Fares on the city-run public buses in Greenville are subsidized by city tax revenues, but among the beneficiaries of the low fares are many people who commute from outside the city to jobs in Greenville. Some city councilors argue that city taxes should be used primarily to benefit the people who pay them, and therefore that bus fares should be raised enough to cover the cost of the service.

Each of the following, if true, would weaken the argument advanced by the city councilors EXCEPT:
A. Many businesses whose presence in the city is beneficial to the city's taxpayers would relocate outside the city if public-transit fares were more expensive.
B. By providing commuters with economic incentives to drive to work, higher transit fares would worsen air pollution in Greenville and increase the cost of maintaining the city's streets.
C. Increasing transit fares would disadvantage those residents of the city whose low incomes make them exempt from city taxes, and all city councilors agree that these residents should be able to take advantage of city-run services.
D. Voters in the city, many of whom benefit from the low transit fares, are strongly opposed to increasing local taxes.
E. People how work in Greenville and earn wages above the nationally mandated minimum all pay the city wage tax of 5 percent.

Answer after some discussion

I am down to D and E. I'd go with D as people's opinion should not affect the argument.


what's the OA and source?

Is it B ?

Mission2012 wrote:Fares on the city-run public buses in Greenville are subsidized by city tax revenues, but among the beneficiaries of the low fares are many people who commute from outside the city to jobs in Greenville. Some city councilors argue that city taxes should be used primarily to benefit the people who pay them, and therefore that bus fares should be raised enough to cover the cost of the service.

Each of the following, if true, would weaken the argument advanced by the city councilors EXCEPT:
A. Many businesses whose presence in the city is beneficial to the city's taxpayers would relocate outside the city if public-transit fares were more expensive.
B. By providing commuters with economic incentives to drive to work, higher transit fares would worsen air pollution in Greenville and increase the cost of maintaining the city's streets.
C. Increasing transit fares would disadvantage those residents of the city whose low incomes make them exempt from city taxes, and all city councilors agree that these residents should be able to take advantage of city-run services.
D. Voters in the city, many of whom benefit from the low transit fares, are strongly opposed to increasing local taxes.
E. People how work in Greenville and earn wages above the nationally mandated minimum all pay the city wage tax of 5 percent.

Answer after some discussion

Conclusion: City taxes must be used primarily to benefit those who pay them. Therefore. the bus fares must be increased

This is an EXCEPT question - we need to pick the answer choice that DOES NOT weaken the conclusion. So, we must eliminate every answer choice that weakens the conclusion.
Let's look at each answer choice:
A: If businesses that benefit the city's taxpayers relocate outside the city when bus fares are raised, the tax payers are actually harmed. Weakens the conclusion.
B: If bus fares are raised, commuters would drive to work and worsen the air pollution in the city; so, the cost of maintaining the city's streets (which again comes from taxes) would increase. So the tax payers are not benefited. Weakens the conclusion.
C: Low-income residents who do not pay taxes will be at a disadvantage if bus fares are increased. City councilors believe that these people should also be able to use city-run services. The main point of the argument is that tax money must be primarily used to benefit tax-payers. So these non-tax-payers do have some secondary importance. Thus, this option also weakens the conclusion.
D: Correct. This is irrelevant to the conclusion, which is about increasing bus fares (not taxes). This DOES NOT weaken the argument and is the right answer.
E: This says that people who work in Greenville (irrespective of whether they live there) pay the city tax. These are tax payers - so increasing bus fares will only hurt them. Weakens the conclusion.