LR Drill Set 13, Question 5
Mayor Tyler: In 1982 the courthouse that Roseville(109 more words not shown)
A point at issue between(7 more words not shown)
- ARoseville will build(4 more words not shown)
- B$37 million in(10 more words not shown)
- CMayor Tyler is(7 more words not shown)
- DRoseville actually needed(7 more words not shown)
- ERoseville would have(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Thirty million is more than twenty-six million. But are we comparing dollars with the same purchasing power?
Tyler treats the difference in quoted construction costs as money the city lost by waiting. That comparison makes me want to ask about inflation over the ten years. I might also ask whether the money was put to some other useful purpose in the meantime. Those are questions, not facts we've established.
Simón supplies the inflation point. The earlier $26 million equals $37 million in 1992 dollars. On that comparison, paying close to $30 million in 1992 is cheaper than the equivalent earlier cost. Simón also points to ten years of avoided maintenance on a courthouse described as underutilized.
What we’re looking for
So Tyler regrets the delay, while Simón calls it a financial benefit. For the point at issue, my first prediction is whether waiting was financially advantageous. Let's check which choice actually gives us opposed positions from both speakers. They may disagree about a premise behind that broader judgment rather than directly about the final financial assessment.
Working the answers
- A
Tyler explicitly discusses the building now costing money to construct in 1992. Simón doesn't object to construction in 1992; the objection concerns whether delaying it was a mistake. Nothing establishes opposed views about the construction happening now.
- B
Simón cites the equivalence, but Tyler doesn't deny it. Tyler's original comparison ignores the adjustment; that doesn't prove Tyler would reject the financial report's numbers when presented with them. Omitting a fact is not the same as taking a position against it.
- C
Simón calls them Tyler's financial reports, but neither speaker debates who is responsible for producing the city's major reports. Attributing a report to the mayor for purposes of this argument doesn't create a disagreement about formal responsibility for the books.
- DCorrect
Tyler says the courthouse was already needed to relieve overcrowding in 1982 and is still needed. Simón describes it as a courthouse that would have been underutilized during the intervening ten years. Those descriptions support opposed positions on whether the city actually needed the new courthouse then.
This is narrower than the financial-benefit prediction, but it is part of why they assess the delay differently. Tyler sees a needed building postponed; Simón sees costs avoided on a building that would not have been sufficiently used.
- E
Four million is Tyler's comparison between the two construction prices. Neither speaker gives a $4 million maintenance estimate. Simón says maintenance costs were avoided without specifying the amount. We cannot turn a construction-cost difference into a maintenance figure and then attribute opposed views on it.
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