PrepTest 89, Section 2, Question 13
Commentator: The worldwide oil crisis of 1973 was not due to any real shortage of oil, but was the result of collusion between international oil companies and oil-producing countries to artificially restrict the supply of oil in order to profit from higher prices. This is shown by the fact that after 1973 the profits of oil companies showed large increases, as did the incomes of oil-producing countries.
Commentator: The worldwide oil crisis of 1973 was not due to any real shortage of oil, but was the result of collusion between international oil companies and oil-producing countries to artificially restrict the supply of oil in order to profit from higher prices. This is shown by the fact that after 1973 the profits of oil companies showed large increases, as did the incomes of oil-producing countries.
Commentator: The worldwide oil crisis of 1973 was not due to any real shortage of oil, but was the result of collusion between international oil companies and oil-producing countries to artificially restrict the supply of oil in order to profit from higher prices. This is shown by the fact that after 1973 the profits of oil companies showed large increases, as did the incomes of oil-producing countries.
Commentator: The worldwide oil crisis of 1973 was not due to any real shortage of oil, but was the result of collusion between international oil companies and oil-producing countries to artificially restrict the supply of oil in order to profit from higher prices. This is shown by the fact that after 1973 the profits of oil companies showed large increases, as did the incomes of oil-producing countries.
The reasoning in the commentator's argument is most vulnerable to criticism on the grounds that the argument
fails to consider the possibility that a party can benefit from an event without helping to bring about that event
presumes, without providing justification, that oil companies and oil-producing countries were the only parties to benefit from the 1973 oil crisis
rests on using the term "profit" in an ambiguous way
fails to establish that there was a worldwide oil surplus prior to the crisis of 1973
fails to consider the possibility that events that occur simultaneously can be causally related
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