Parental Leave

Expert replies

Ozlemg: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 407; Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:19 amFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 25 times

by Ozlemg » Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:35 am

A law requiring companies to offer employees unpaid time off to care for their children will harm the economic competitiveness of our nation's businesses. Companies must be free to set their own employment policies without mandated parental-leave regulations.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion of the argument above?
(A) A parental-leave law will serve to strengthen the family as a social institution in this country.
(B) Many businesses in this country already offer employees some form of parental leave.
(C) Some of the countries with the most economically competitive businesses have strong parental-leave regulations.
(D) Only companies with one hundred or more employees would be subject to the proposed parental-leave law.
(E) In most polls, a majority of citizens say they favor passage of a parental-leave law.

OA : C

Could someone elaborate why C is correct? How could we make a comment about "strong"? Isnt it open ended?

The more you suffer before the test, the less you will do so in the test!

Source: Beat The GMAT — Critical Reasoning | Sat Aug 13, 2011 5:35 am

crick: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 125; Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:11 pm; Thanked: 8 times

by crick » Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:34 am

I fell for B.

I do not like C at all. First objection is that it talks about other countries, that too only a few with economically competitive businesses. There can be 1000 other factors different..

Second objection is off course the open endedness of "strong".

Would be great if some experts can pitch in to help.

What is the source of the question?

Crick

Frankenstein: Legendary Member; Posts: 1448; Joined: Tue May 17, 2011 9:55 amFollowed by: 53 members; Location: India; Thanked: 375 times

by Frankenstein » Sat Aug 13, 2011 6:50 am

Hi,

Premise: New law will harm economic competitiveness of nation's businesses.
Conclusion: New law should not be enforced on companies. Choice should be left to the companies.
So, the authors concludes this because this new law will harm economic competitiveness and hence shouldn't be enforced.
So, if we can show examples in which, despite mandated(strong) parental-leave regulations countries are very competitive(economically), we will be able to convince(at least to some extent) that the argument is not sound. That is what C does.

Cheers!

Things are not what they appear to be... nor are they otherwise

SticklorForDetails: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 66; Joined: Wed Jul 20, 2011 3:39 pmFollowed by: 22 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 39 times; GMAT Score:780

by SticklorForDetails » Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:04 pm

Ozlemg wrote:A law requiring companies to offer employees unpaid time off to care for their children will harm the economic competitiveness of our nation's businesses. Companies must be free to set their own employment policies without mandated parental-leave regulations.
Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion of the argument above?
(A) A parental-leave law will serve to strengthen the family as a social institution in this country.
(B) Many businesses in this country already offer employees some form of parental leave.
(C) Some of the countries with the most economically competitive businesses have strong parental-leave regulations.
(D) Only companies with one hundred or more employees would be subject to the proposed parental-leave law.
(E) In most polls, a majority of citizens say they favor passage of a parental-leave law.

OA : C

Could someone elaborate why C is correct? How could we make a comment about "strong"? Isnt it open ended?

I also detest C and think it is a terrible answer, would like to know the source of this question. However, it is the only choice that addresses the Argument at all. (A) is out-of-scope since the argument only cares about economics; (B) does not mention whether these companies suffer economically nor does it address the issue of mandated laws as opposed to the freedom to set one's own policies; (D) is an irrelevant comparison not addressed in the stimulus; and (E) is irrelevant because, again, it is the economic viability of the companies and not the popularity of the law that forms the author's argument. Only (C) brings any suggestion at all that such laws (whether strong or weak or whatever) might not harm businesses economically.

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saketk: Legendary Member; Posts: 608; Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 11:16 amFollowed by: 8 members; Thanked: 37 times

by saketk » Sun Aug 14, 2011 11:04 am

what is the source of this question. C is a terrible choice. totally open ended.

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