Some analysts contend that true capitalism exists only when

C...uses "is", matches "a license"...and "as..., not as...." is parallel

IMO C

correct verb is IS for singular subj. ownership
A & E have ambiguous it. So left out with C.

Here is my take.

Some analysts contend that true capitalism exists only when the ownership of both property and the means of production is regarded as an inalienable right of an individual’s, and it is not a license granted by government and revokable at whim.

I tried reading the above sentence as follows -

The ownership is regarded as an inalienable right of an individual, not as a license granted by govt and revokable at whim.

Among the ans choices, only C is close enough. So my pick is C.

In E the problem is - The ownership is a license.......(how can a ownership be a license. It can be regarded as a license.

Why is it IS and not ARE? Can someone please clarify why the subject here is not plural - the 2 things joined by AND?

the subject is " the ownership of x and y"...and it's singular

can someone explain why e is not correct.
I fell for e although after reading the posts c looks correct but important to understand the reason why e is not correct.

Some analysts contend that true capitalism exists only when the ownership of both property and the means of production is regarded as an individual’s inalienable right, not as a license granted by government and revokable at whim.

Some analysts contend that true capitalism exists only when the ownership of both property and the means of production is regarded as an inalienable right of an individual’s, and it is not a license granted by government and revokable at whim.

(A) is regarded as an inalienable right of an individual’s, and it is not
(B) are regarded as individuals’ inalienable rights, and that it not be
(C) is regarded as an individual’s inalienable right, not as
(D) are regarded as an individual’s inalienable rights, not when they are
(E) is regarded as the inalienable rights of an individual, not when it is

I am also confused between B and C!

Reason - I chose 'are' initially because 2 things are joined using 'and', but C is the answer because 'ownership of both property and the means of production' made me think that there have to be 2 things after both - property and means! Hence our subject is ownership, which is singular! if we did not have 'both' there then we would have had 2 things - 'ownership of property and the means of production' followed by 'are'.
I hope you got my point!

Let us look at the structure of this sentence to ward any possible confusion in SV agreement,

This complex-compound sentence has the following clauses

1 Some analysts contend --- main clause
2 that true capitalism exists only ----- Subordinate clause 1
3 When the ownership of both property and the means of production are regarded as an inalienable right of an individual’s Subordinate clause 2.
4 and it is not a license granted by government and revocable at whim. – another independent clause


Whether it is both property and the means of production or simply property and the means of production, it does not matter. The subject of the subordinate clause remains the ownership, a singular one. So the verb has to be necessarily the singular ‘is’. Therefor B is simply out.

In addition, ‘regarded as’ is not // with the subjunctive verb ‘that it not be’. Use of the subjunctive imperative mood verb ‘that it not be’ will not go with the non-bossy verb ‘contend ‘

here the subject is "the Ownership"(singular) and not [of both property and the means of production] which is prepositions so we use IS and not ARE.

Some analysts contend that true capitalism exists only when the ownership of both property and the means of production is regarded as an inalienable right of an individual’s, and it is not a license granted by government and revokable at whim.

Thus the reduced stem :

the ownership is regarded as an inalienable right...............AND...........it is not a license..............

verical scan reveals : only A / C/ E maintains the correct SV pairing......... : Thus B&D go off

bxn A / C / E :


(A) The ownership............is regarded as X, and it is not..........................Y

(C) The ownership ...........is regarded as X, not as.........................Y

(E) The ownership............is regarded as X, not when it is............Y

guess now it becomes easy to zone in on C : ............. regarded AS X..........NOT AS Y........

leading to C , my take

(A) is regarded as an inalienable right of an individual’s, and it is not
(B) are regarded as individuals’ inalienable rights, and that it not be
(C) is regarded as an individual’s inalienable right, not as
(D) are regarded as an individual’s inalienable rights, not when they are
(E) is regarded as the inalienable rights of an individual, not when it is

I liked E until I read it aloud. Answer choice E contains faulty predication, which occurs when a subject and a predicate cannot go together. The subject "ownership [referent]" cannot be a "license". A license may convey ownership; even so, ownership <> license.

For the answer C, shouldn't there be an "and" that acts like a conjunction?
Some analysts contend that true capitalism exists only when the ownership of both property and the means of production is regarded as an inalienable right of an individual’s, AND not as.....

Please help. Thanks.

Hi chendubber,

I shall try to help.

X, not Y is a valid idiom, although not very stylistic. The structure of option C is as follows:
A is regarded as X, not as Y.

A stylistically better idiom is: not Y, but X

The sentence could be better expressed as:
A is regarded not as Y, but as X.

Does this help?

By the way, I guess that you overlooked a serious mistake in your sentence above - of an individual's is definitely wrong (double possessive).

Hi,

You are correct on the observation of choice C..
just a point---
The question is testing the IDIOM Regarded as..
and even the second 'as' is a part of 'REGARDED as'....

(C) is regarded as an individual’s inalienable right, notregarded as..
its not repeated to avoid wordiness...--

OA :- C

Ownership is the subject of the main clause and hence the usage of " is "
C rightly compares individual's rights with license; ( as X as Y ; X is noun(rights) and Y(license) is noun)

(A) is regarded as an inalienable right of an individual’s, and it is not - Individual's what? suppose to be a possessive noun
(B) are regarded as individuals’ inalienable rights, and that it not be - wrong tense, ownership is singular
(C) is regarded as an individual’s inalienable right, not as - best answer
(D) are regarded as an individual’s inalienable rights, not when they are -wrong tense, ownership is singular
(E) is regarded as the inalienable rights of an individual, not when it is - when should modify time or a point in time