PrepTest 151, Section 4, Question 7
By Brandon Beaver | Published October 29, 2024
Type: Flaw
Difficulty:
Explanations
What a garbage argument. The author alleges that, because layoffs sometimes occur from corporations seeking to improve productivity, it must be the case that seeking to improve productivity economy-wide would lead to increased unemployment. Nonsense.
It turns out to be a Flaw question, so we need the answer choice that describes what this argument does wrong.
I want something like, “Assumes that what sometimes occurs when corporations seek to increase productivity would also occur if we were to try and increase productivity throughout the whole economy.”
Let’s see.
A
Nah, the author isn’t presuming increased unemployment is reason enough not to seek productivity gains throughout the economy. They presume increased unemployment is an inevitable outcome of seeking to improve productivity at scale.
B
Perfect! All this answer choice means is the author doesn’t justify the connection they make between what’s true of corporations and what’s true of the economy at large. The author thinks what happens at the corporate level would occur at scale, and we don’t know that’s true.
C
Nah, the author offers up general criticism, but that’s not the error in their reasoning. It’s just a piece of background information.
D
Nope. We can’t even say the author presumes this.
E
No chance. While it’s fair to say the author fails to address this, they don’t need to in order to make their argument.
Passage
Politicians often advocate increased overall economic produc
Question 7
The reasoning in the argument is most vulnerable to criticis