PT 58, S2, Q19, Economist: Our economy's weakness...

[bbirdwell]

A rather straightforward assumption problem, though with a conditional conclusion and a great example of how answer choices can take advantage of "common knowledge" to try and lure test-takers toward an incorrect response.

Conclusion: If the government lowers income taxes, the economy will improve.

Premises: Economy is weak b/c consumers are reluctant to spend
Consumers are reluctant to spend b/c high prices.
This reluctance exacerbated by fact that income is lower than 5 yrs. ago.

To get right to the heart of this argument, we need only focus on the conditional nature of the conclusion. Why must lowering taxes lead to economic improvement? The author provides no evidence regarding taxes, so we can be sure there is an assumption needed to make the argument work.

Since the author provides nothing about taxes, we must look for evidence regarding the part of the conclusion: the economy. What does our author provide about the economy? That it's weak b/c consumers are reluctant to spend.

And there we have it, the final conclusion must be drawing an unstated link between reluctance to spend and income taxes.

This is correctly expressed by answer choice (D).

Notice that answer choice (E) attempts to attract test-takers who feel that government spending is an important part of economic improvement. While this may be true, it's not a part of this argument and the choice can be safely eliminated for being out of scope.