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Economist

by sumanr84 » Thu Jul 01, 2010 12:49 am
Economist: In the interaction between producers and consumers, the only obligation that all parties have to act in the best interests of their own side. And distribution of information about product defects is in the best interests of the consumer, So consumers are always obligated to report product defects they discover, while producers are never obligated to reveal them.

Which one of the following is an assumption required by the economist's argument?
A. It is never in the best interests of producers for a producer to reveal a product defect.
B. No one expects producers to act in a manner counter to their own best interests.
C. Any product defect is likely to be discovered by consumer
D. A product defect is more likely to be discovered by a consumer than by a producer
E. The best interests of consumers never coincide with the best interests of producers

[spoiler]Answer: A[/spoiler]
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by kvcpk » Thu Jul 01, 2010 12:58 am
Good Question.. Though A looks obvious in the end, A and B looked comepetotors to me.

B had to be ruled out because, we are not concerned about some one's expectations.
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by sumanr84 » Thu Jul 01, 2010 1:04 am
Nice work kvcpk.

OE :
Argument:In the interaction between producers and consumers, the only obligation that all parties have to act in the best interests of their own side.
Conclusion : So consumers are always obligated to report product defects they discover, while producers are never obligated to reveal them.
Assumption : It is never in the best interests of producers for a producer to reveal a product defect.

This belongs to doc "300 GMAT CR questions with Best Solutions" uploaded by Papgust. I am seeing good CRs there for practice.
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by ashish2104 » Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:26 am
I am facing a question here.
The argument says that each party is obligated for its own benefit. So it seems reasonable to me that assumption would be neither parties have common interests (as sugegsted by E).

Can someone explain why this assumption is counted out?
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by jube » Thu Jul 01, 2010 2:29 am
ashish2104 wrote:I am facing a question here.
The argument says that each party is obligated for its own benefit. So it seems reasonable to me that assumption would be neither parties have common interests (as sugegsted by E).

Can someone explain why this assumption is counted out?
I have to admit that is what I thought too. I narrowed it down to A & E and thought that the *argument* itself (which is stated in the first line) is supported by this option. A supports the example given for the argument.

Any explanations on this would be nice.
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by pnk » Thu Jul 01, 2010 8:24 am
Stuck btn A and E.

Only problem in E - its very generic doesnot mention 'products defects'. That cud be the reason.

But I wud appreciate some expertcomment on this. Can we invite some expert
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by paddle_sweep » Sat Jul 03, 2010 10:28 pm
Even I am attracted by 'E'. I thought 'A' is already stated in the passage.

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by deepshi291 » Tue Jul 06, 2010 12:43 am
[E. The best interests of consumers NEVER coincide with the best interests of producers

Initially, even I thought that E could be right but it is an extreme answer. We should avoid extreme answers.
A is the correct answer.
Last edited by deepshi291 on Tue Jul 06, 2010 1:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by arora007 » Tue Jul 06, 2010 12:56 am
deepshi291 wrote:[E. The best interests of consumers NEVER coincide with the best interests of producers

Initially, even I thought that E could be right but it is an extreme answer. We should avoid extreme answers.
yeah u r rite....
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by paddle_sweep » Tue Jul 06, 2010 2:32 am
arora007 wrote:
deepshi291 wrote:[E. The best interests of consumers NEVER coincide with the best interests of producers

Initially, even I thought that E could be right but it is an extreme answer. We should avoid extreme answers.
yeah u r rite....
If 'extreme' is the factor considered to eliminate 'E' then is 'A' not extreme?

A. It is never in the best interests of producers for a producer to reveal a product defect.
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by adi_800 » Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:21 am
Even I went for E...
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by deepshi291 » Tue Jul 06, 2010 5:45 pm
paddle_sweep wrote:
arora007 wrote:
deepshi291 wrote:[E. The best interests of consumers NEVER coincide with the best interests of producers

Initially, even I thought that E could be right but it is an extreme answer. We should avoid extreme answers.
yeah u r rite....
If 'extreme' is the factor considered to eliminate 'E' then is 'A' not extreme?

A. It is never in the best interests of producers for a producer to reveal a product defect.[/

hey,

wrong explanation but I just knew A is right after rereading the stimulus sumanr84 has provided a great explanation
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by paddle_sweep » Wed Jul 07, 2010 5:18 am
deepshi291 wrote:
paddle_sweep wrote:
arora007 wrote:
deepshi291 wrote:[E. The best interests of consumers NEVER coincide with the best interests of producers

Initially, even I thought that E could be right but it is an extreme answer. We should avoid extreme answers.
yeah u r rite....
If 'extreme' is the factor considered to eliminate 'E' then is 'A' not extreme?

A. It is never in the best interests of producers for a producer to reveal a product defect.[/

hey,

wrong explanation but I just knew A is right after rereading the stimulus sumanr84 has provided a great explanation
But 'A' is already stated in the passage. Still not clear as to why 'A' is the answer and not 'E'.
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by Tommy Wallach » Thu Jul 08, 2010 10:54 am
Hey All,

I was asked to answer this by private message. So here we go:

Where did you find this question? It seems a little sketchy to me, not least because it's not even written grammatically correctly.

Economist: In the interaction between producers and consumers, the only obligation that all parties have to act in the best interests of their own side. And distribution of information about product defects is in the best interests of the consumer, So consumers are always obligated to report product defects they discover, while producers are never obligated to reveal them.

This is horribly incorrect English. Did you copy it down wrong, or is that the actual text?

Either way:

Conclusion: Consumers must report product defects, producers never obligated to reveal them
Premise: Info on product defects is in best interests of consumer
Assumption: It's not also in the best interest of the producer.

Notice how our conclusion tells us something about both consumers AND producers, but the only actual premise we have here tells us ONLY about consumers. This means we need some info on producers as well (to get to the conclusion).


Which one of the following is an assumption required by the economist's argument?

A. It is never in the best interests of producers for a producer to reveal a product defect.
ANSWER: Try Least Extreme Negation, in which you negate each answer choice in order to see which one destroys the argument. "It is sometimes in the best interests of producers for a producer to reveal a product defect." (NOTE: The opposite of "never" is "sometimes"). Now the conclusion doesn't work, because if everyone is OBLIGATED to act in their best interest, and it is in the best interest of producers to reveal defects, then they are OBLIGATED to do so.

B. No one expects producers to act in a manner counter to their own best interests.
PROBLEM: Expectations are not relevant.

C. Any product defect is likely to be discovered by consumer
PROBLEM: The argument is about what's in people's best interest to DO, not what eventually happens anyway.

D. A product defect is more likely to be discovered by a consumer than by a producer
PROBLEM: Doesn't matter who discovers it.

E. The best interests of consumers never coincide with the best interests of producers
PROBLEM: I understand that people like this, but let's look at the opposite. "The best interest of consumers sometimes coincides with the best interests of producers." Yes, the best interests coincide, but there's no immediate relation to revealing product defects. For all we know, the places that the interests coincide are in other categories that have nothing to do with product defects. Compare to A, which says it straightforwardly.

Hope that helps!

-t
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by diebeatsthegmat » Fri Jul 09, 2010 10:30 am
Tommy Wallach wrote:Hey All,

I was asked to answer this by private message. So here we go:

Where did you find this question? It seems a little sketchy to me, not least because it's not even written grammatically correctly.

Economist: In the interaction between producers and consumers, the only obligation that all parties have to act in the best interests of their own side. And distribution of information about product defects is in the best interests of the consumer, So consumers are always obligated to report product defects they discover, while producers are never obligated to reveal them.

This is horribly incorrect English. Did you copy it down wrong, or is that the actual text?

Either way:

Conclusion: Consumers must report product defects, producers never obligated to reveal them
Premise: Info on product defects is in best interests of consumer
Assumption: It's not also in the best interest of the producer.

Notice how our conclusion tells us something about both consumers AND producers, but the only actual premise we have here tells us ONLY about consumers. This means we need some info on producers as well (to get to the conclusion).


Which one of the following is an assumption required by the economist's argument?

A. It is never in the best interests of producers for a producer to reveal a product defect.
ANSWER: Try Least Extreme Negation, in which you negate each answer choice in order to see which one destroys the argument. "It is sometimes in the best interests of producers for a producer to reveal a product defect." (NOTE: The opposite of "never" is "sometimes"). Now the conclusion doesn't work, because if everyone is OBLIGATED to act in their best interest, and it is in the best interest of producers to reveal defects, then they are OBLIGATED to do so.

B. No one expects producers to act in a manner counter to their own best interests.
PROBLEM: Expectations are not relevant.

C. Any product defect is likely to be discovered by consumer
PROBLEM: The argument is about what's in people's best interest to DO, not what eventually happens anyway.

D. A product defect is more likely to be discovered by a consumer than by a producer
PROBLEM: Doesn't matter who discovers it.

E. The best interests of consumers never coincide with the best interests of producers
PROBLEM: I understand that people like this, but let's look at the opposite. "The best interest of consumers sometimes coincides with the best interests of producers." Yes, the best interests coincide, but there's no immediate relation to revealing product defects. For all we know, the places that the interests coincide are in other categories that have nothing to do with product defects. Compare to A, which says it straightforwardly.

Hope that helps!

-t
i think i understand a little bit more. thanks indeed.
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