LR Question 14 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Politician: It has been proposed that the national…
QUESTION TYPE: Weaken
CONCLUSION: Privatizing parks would probably be good for park visitors.
REASONING: Privatizing telecommunications was good for telephone customers.
ANALYSIS: This is an argument by analogy. Any analogy is vulnerable to differences between the two situations. Maybe national parks aren’t like telephones.
So look for an answer that points out a factor that makes parks not like telephones.
___________
- This answer talks about whether politicians will privatize parks. That doesn’t matter. The argument was about what would happen if parks were privatized.
- This is tempting. Maybe privatizing was a bad idea because it was bad for workers. But the conclusion isn’t about whether privatization is a good idea in general. The question is: will privatization help visitors?
- It doesn’t matter if people know about the proposals. It only matters how the proposals will affect them.
- This sounds tempting, but it doesn’t contradict the conclusion. The conclusion is that park visitors would benefit. This answer suggests that park visitors would, in fact, benefit to some extent. The conclusion didn’t say how much benefit there must be – even a tiny bit works.
- CORRECT. Competition was the reason that privatization produced low prices. If parks don’t have competition, then maybe there will be no benefit for consumers.
Recap: The question begins with “Politician: It has been proposed”. It is a Weaken question. To practice more Weaken questions, have a look at the LSAT Questions by Type page.
More Resources for Weaken Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Weaken questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers weaken questions.
But E doesn’t say that parks will have no competition, just that it has much less competition. Which implies privatizing national parks still produces some competition. It doesn’t say if that ‘much less’ is enough to weaken the analogy so how does that weaken the argument? Isn’t it neutral at most?
You’re right that E does not state no competition, just much less. However, this is crucial because the analogy depends on similar conditions (i.e. levels of competition) leading to similar outcomes. If the competition in the national parks scenario is much less, the analogy breaks down because the conditions necessary for achieving the same benefits are not present. “Much less competition” would not have been adequate to prove the politician wrong, but in this case it is sufficient to weaken the argument. A weaken answer does not have to totally destroy the argument.
I think the question text and the analysis don’t match here.
You were correct! I’ve fixed the error. Thanks!
Hi,
I chose answer “D,” because it seemed to most clearly weaken the argument. I am confused by your explanation because you said it doesn’t completely contradict the argument, though if we’re looking for an answer that “most weakens” the argument, it doesn’t have to completely contradict it, right? Thanks!
It doesn’t have to “completely contradict” but in the case of Answer Choice D, it doesn’t do anything to weaken the argument.
For questions like this, you should always keep in mind the information/context provided by the stimulus. The argument here is that parks should be privatized; it worked for the telecommunications industry. Why? It created competition. This is the reasoning behind the argument.
Nowhere in the stimulus did it talk about benefits, or who this act would benefit. Thus, the correct answer choice should tackle the reasoning provided for the argument. Answer Choice E is correct as it says that the reasoning behind the privatization of telecommunications (increased competition) wouldn’t work with parks.
The conclusion here is “parks will benefit” (from privatization) and D is not inconsistent with that. ANY level of benefit means the argment works. Graeme wrote “contradict” because D seems like it contradicts the conclusion but doesn’t.
I am not receiving the LSAT email tips after registering, is there something else that I need to do?
No, it should be automatic. Maybe you misspelled your email or its in gmail’s promotional tab?
I checked the email you included in this comment, and it’s not on my list. What email did you sign up with?