Q8

[judaydaday]

I'm having trouble seeing how passage B expresses that "fish pulled from the ocean" does not generate wealth.
I think I'm missing a key inference here. Are taxable prizes and awards supposed to be considered as something that generates wealth?

Or is it because this phrase is qualified by the statement "which is taxed only upon sale." Meaning you haven't created wealth if you don't sell it, so just pulling the fish from the ocean without selling does not generate wealth.

[coldnjl]

I'm having trouble seeing how passage B expresses that "fish pulled from the ocean" does not generate wealth.
I think I'm missing a key inference here. Are taxable prizes and awards supposed to be considered as something that generates wealth?

Or is it because this phrase is qualified by the statement "which is taxed only upon sale." Meaning you haven't created wealth if you don't sell it, so just pulling the fish from the ocean without selling does not generate wealth.

In Passage B, the author is saying that virtual items shouldn't be taxed, much like fish that our caught in the oceans are not taxed in real life. Furthermore, in regards to AC E, I don't see much discussion of wealth creation in passage B; most of the discussion focused on tax ramifications with this new virtual environment and how current law applies. When the author mentions selling fish, he does that only to point out where the line of taxation begins when you 'create' objects, virtual or real.

[rinagoldfield]

Hi All,

Thanks for your posts. Judaydaday, I wonder if you misread the right answer; the correct answer is (B), which does not talk about generating wealth. (B) is correct because the animals were skinned in the virtual world (“players were killing monsters or skinning animals”) while the fish were caught in the real world (“fish pulled from the ocean”).

Animal-skinning and fish-pulling are analogous because each indicates an action that can be turned into real currency, but does not have to be.

We don’t know whether the fish create wealth. The author of passage (B) does not define wealth-creation. We could infer that selling a fish creates wealth; in this case, we still don’t know if the fish created wealth since we don’t know if it was sold. Thus, (A) and (E) are incorrect, since it’s unclear whether the fish here were sold. (C) and (D) are incorrect because the author only thinks acquisitions should be taxed upon sale and, again, we don’t know if the fish were sold.

I feel like the wrong answer choices are more confusing than the right one here; the right answer is almost hiding in plain sight. Remember, confusing doesn’t necessarily mean correct!

[bswise2]

Would D be correct if the "latter" and "former" were reversed and it said: "The former, unlike the latter, refers to the production of a commodity that the author of passage B things should be taxed" ?

Because Author B thinks that something should be taxed if it generates real world wealth. "Skinning animals" in Passage A is generating real world wealth, while a fish pulled from the ocean should not be taxed because it is comparable to "loot" in a game, or "property that requires effort to obtain"?

Thanks.

[snoopy]

Would D be correct if the "latter" and "former" were reversed and it said: "The former, unlike the latter, refers to the production of a commodity that the author of passage B things should be taxed" ?

Because Author B thinks that something should be taxed if it generates real world wealth. "Skinning animals" in Passage A is generating real world wealth, while a fish pulled from the ocean should not be taxed because it is comparable to "loot" in a game, or "property that requires effort to obtain"?

Thanks.

C is already a reversal of D. And it's incorrect.

But, I'm failing to understand why C is wrong and why B is right. Skinning animals is cited as a creating wealth, but it's being sold for real currency, right? Which Passage B author would say that sale should be taxed. And fishing in the ocean shouldn't be taxed unless sold. I thought they were talking about fishing in an online game, not real world. Where in the passage does it say "fishing in the ocean" is analogous to the real world? I chose C because I thought the Passage B author wouldn't agree to taxing fish in the ocean unless you sold a bunch of fish for real currency.

[RyanC307]

[/quote]
But, I'm failing to understand why C is wrong and why B is right. Skinning animals is cited as a creating wealth, but it's being sold for real currency, right? Which Passage B author would say that sale should be taxed. And fishing in the ocean shouldn't be taxed unless sold. I thought they were talking about fishing in an online game, not real world. Where in the passage does it say "fishing in the ocean" is analogous to the real world? I chose C because I thought the Passage B author wouldn't agree to taxing fish in the ocean unless you sold a bunch of fish for real currency.[/quote]

Not necessarily, the player could sell the animal pelt for virtual currency.

The author of passage B would say, just like with catching fish, it should only be taxed only upon sale (with in game transactions being omitted).