#3 - Durham: The mayor will agree to a tax increase

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[bac435@nyu.edu]

Hi,

Please can you explain why C is wrong and why B is right?

Thanks.

[Adam Tyson]

The key here is in careful reading, bac435. Most people would look at this argument and assume that they were about to be asked a Point at Issue question, and that their goal would be to select something that the two speakers disagree about. If that were the case, then answer C would look really good - Durham clearly states that the road repair proposal is her top priority, and Espinoza makes clear that preventing a tax increase is an even higher priority. Great answer for Point at Issue - but that's not what this question asked!

Instead, this is a rare Point of Agreement question. What is it that these two speakers would both say is true? As shown above, they would NOT agree that the road repair proposal is her top priority, so answer C is out. The evidence does suggest, however, that approving the tax increase is the only way she will get agreement on that proposal. Durham says so explicitly, and Espinoza implies as much when he says she will not get agreement on the proposal because she will oppose the tax increase. Durham and Espinoza would both say, in response to answer B, "yes, that's true", and that is the correct test to apply to any Point of Agreement question.

Read carefully! Those Point of Agreement questions are rare, and they can sneak up on you when you least expect them!

[stacyzsong]

Hi,

My question is why D is wrong and B is right?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi stacyzsong!

For this type of question, it can be helpful to put an initial for each of the speakers next to contender answer choices. Then ask whether the person would agree or disagree with the answer choice, or put a question mark to denote that one doesn't know one way or another.

So for answer choice (D), "The mayor will not get her road repair proposal passed," we'd have:

D: Disagree
E: Agree

Durham thinks that the mayor will get the road repair proposal passed (and will also agree to a tax increase). Espinoza, by contrast, states that the "mayor will not get her road proposal passed." Since the question stem asks us for what they'd agree about, we can eliminate answer choice (D).

Applying the same test to answer choice (B)--"The only way that the city council will agree to pass the mayor’s road repair proposal is if she agrees to a tax increase"--results in:

D: Agree
E: Agree

Durham states that the tax increase is the "only way" that the city council will agree to the road repair proposal. Espinoza does not dispute this but rather argues that the mayor's priority is not to increase taxes--given this priority, Espinoza concludes that the "mayor will not get her road repair proposal passed."

[lemonade42]

I have a question about the conditional relationship in (B). So it says "the only way the city will pass the road repair proposal is if she agrees to a tax increase".
Would you diagram this as
road repair proposal pass ---> agrees to tax increase

where the "agrees to tax increase" is the "only way" so it is the only necessary condition?
the "if" confuses me into thinking "agrees to tax increase" is a sufficient condition.
So given this diagram, and what Durham would say which is (because) road proposal pass ---> tax increase.
At first I thought he was making an MR because it seems like he's saying tax increase ---> road proposal pass...

[Jeff Wren]

Hi lemonade,

First, your diagram is correct.

Anytime you see a sentence in the form of "the only way to do X is Y," the word "only" is modifying the second term ("Y") through the verb "is."

For example, if I state, "The only way for me to pass the bar exam is to study hard," then I'm saying that "studying hard" is necessary to pass the bar exam. In other words, if I pass the bar exam, then I must have studied hard.

Durham is not making a Mistaken Reversal here because he isn't saying "the mayor will agree to a tax increase, therefore she will get her road repair policy approved." This would be a Mistaken Reversal.

Instead Durham simple states that the mayor will agree to tax increase because it's necessary to get what she wants (the road repair proposal passed), even though this does not guarantee that she will get the road repair proposal passed.

Using my example above, if I want to pass the bar exam, then I will study hard since that is necessary to passing the bar exam. Unfortunately, studying hard doesn't guarantee that I will pass, but I will still do it because if I don't study hard, I definitely won't pass.