Economist: Some policymakers believe that our country’s continued economic growth requires a higher level of personal

Economist: Some policymakers believe that our country’s continued economic growth requires a higher level of personal savings than we currently have. A recent legislative proposal would allow individuals to set up savings accounts in which interest earned would be exempt from taxes until money is withdrawn from the account. Backers of this proposal claim that its implementation would increase the amount of money available for banks to loan at a relatively small cost to the government in lost tax revenues. Yet, when similar tax-incentive programs were tried in the past, virtually all of the money invested through them was diverted from other personal savings, and the overall level of personal savings was unchanged.

The passage as a whole provides the most support for which one of the following conclusions?


A) Backers of the tax-incentive proposal undoubtedly have some motive other than their expressed aim of increasing the amount of money available for banks to loan.

B) The proposed tax incentive is unlikely to attract enough additional money into personal savings accounts to make up for the attendant loss in tax revenues.

C) A tax-incentive program that resulted in substantial loss of tax revenues would be likely to generate a large increase in personal savings.

D) The economy will be in danger unless some alternative to increased personal savings can be found to stimulate growth.

E) The government has no effective means of influencing the amount of money that people are willing to put into savings accounts.

The OA is B