All social systems are based upon a division of economic roles. The va

Question

All social systems are based upon a division of economic roles. The values of a social system are embodied in the prestige accorded persons who fill various economic roles. It is therefore unsurprising that, for any social system, the introduction of labor-saving technology that makes certain economic roles obsolete will tend to undermine the values in that social system.

Which one of the following can most reasonably be concluded on the basis of the information above?

(A) Social systems will have unchanging values if they are shielded from technological advancement.

(B) No type of technology will fail to undermine the values in a social system.

(C) A social system whose values are not susceptible to change would not be one in which technology can eliminate economic roles.

(D) A technologically advanced society will place little value on the prestige associated with an economic role.

(E) A technological innovation that is implemented in a social system foreign to the one in which it was developed will tend to undermine the foreign social system.

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

The key to this question lies in realizing that all technology/technological innovations are not labor-saving and hence do not lead to disappearance of economic roles. 
Options A, B, D and E talk about technology, not about labor-saving technology. Hence, none of them can be inferred.

(A) Social systems will have unchanging values if they are shielded from technological advancement.
Social systems' values could change due to other reasons so don't even think about this.

(B) No type of technology will fail to undermine the values in a social system.
All technology is not labor saving technology. So ignore it.

(C) A social system whose values are not susceptible to change would not be one in which technology can eliminate economic roles.
When economic roles are eliminated, values change. If values do not change, it means technology is not eliminating economic roles i.e. the society does not develop labor-saving economic-role-eliminating technology. This is correct.

(D) A technologically advanced society will place little value on the prestige associated with an economic role.
Again, a technologically advanced society doesn't mean there are no economic roles. The roles could be different from the roles in a labor intensive society.

(E) A technological innovation that is implemented in a social system foreign to the one in which it was developed will tend to undermine the foreign social system.
Technological innovation doesn't necessarily mean labor saving technological innovation so ignore it right away.

PTK · Answer

Answer is C.

Easy. just look at strong words and eliminate too strong statements. Only C remains.

(A) Social systems  will have  unchanging values if they are shielded from technological advancement. -too strong , sure ? can you predict future?

(B)  No  type of technology  will fail to  undermine the values in a social system. -too strong

(C) A social system whose values are  not  susceptible to change  would   not  be one in which technology can eliminate economic roles.  -Whenever we see 2 different nagative connotations expressed in one sentence in 2 diferrent ideas, it is basically done to complicate our reasoning.  
 C converted - A social system whose values are susceptible to change would be one in which technology can eliminate economic roles.
Technology can eliminate economic roles in social systems. = to to what is stated in stimuli.

(D) A technologically advanced society  will  place little value on the prestige associated with an economic role. -too strong , sure ? can you predict future?

(E) A technological innovation that is implemented in a social system foreign to the one in which it was developed  will tend to undermine  the foreign social system. - too strong.

cano · Answer

A. The stem talks about changes is social systems that are influenced by technologies. The social systems that are shielded from tech advancements will not change... they still may change for other reasons.
B. Wrong. According to the stem, only the ones that erase a labor role.
C. Right. If values don't change, it means that technology did not eliminate economic roles, since according to the stem the values tend to change.
D. Makes sense, but still, what level of technological advance we need to make obsolete most economic roles? 
E. It could be right, but it's too much of a stretch to conclude this from the stem given.

vbarrozo · Answer

I went for C.

(C) A social system whose values are not susceptible to change would not be one in which technology can eliminate economic roles. -  The double negation can confuse things, but, IMO, that is exactly what question stem states. I think we can rewrite it like this, without the double negation: A social system whose values are susceptible to change would be one in which technology can eliminate economic roles.

(D) A technologically advanced society will place little value on the prestige associated with an economic role. -  The stem clearly says that "the introduction of labor-saving technology that makes  certain  economic roles obsolete". Seems to me that only some roles will lost prestige. Therefore, it is still possible to have some prestigious roles even in a technologically advanced society.

lnarayanan · Answer

All social systems are based upon a division of economic roles. The values of a social system are embodied in the prestige accorded persons who fill various economic roles. It is therefore unsurprising that, for any social system, the introduction of labor-saving technology that makes certain economic roles obsolete will tend to undermine the values in that social system.

value 1( 100 points )
Value 2( 100 points ) ------- all Social System ( 100 )
Value 3( 100 points )
Value 4( 100 points )
ex:-
value 1( 100 points )
Value 2( 100 points ) ------- all Social System ( 70 )
Value 3( 100 points )
Value 4( 20 points ) ( introducing labor saving tech --- reduce the labor work )

Which one of the following can most reasonably be concluded on the basis of the information above?

(A) Social systems will have unchanging values if they are shielded from technological advancement.
 Since,introducing technology is one of the factors & There may be many other factor that affect the labor, we cant say this is true 
(B) No type of technology will fail to undermine the values in a social system.
 technology do have effect on Social system. It is wrong answer 
(C) A social system whose values are not susceptible to change would not be one in which technology can eliminate economic roles.
 It is mentioned that " technology may affect the social system". If social system can't be affect by any thing definitely technology can't have any control over Social system.It is correct answer  
(D) A technologically advanced society will place little value on the prestige associated with an economic role.
 Junk answer 
(E) A technological innovation that is implemented in a social system foreign to the one in which it was developed will tend to undermine the foreign social system. Junk Answer

TehJay · Answer

I narrowed this down to C and D before going with C. I think the key thing to remember is that the passage states that " labor-saving technology  that makes certain economic roles obsolete" will tend to undermine values - not ALL technology, just that particular subset of technology.

goforgmat · Answer

(A) Social systems will have unchanging values if they are shielded from technological advancement.   It cant be inferred .

(B) No type of technology will fail to undermine the values in a social system.   We are only concerned with labor saving technology not any kind of technology

(C) A social system whose values are not susceptible to change would not be one in which technology can eliminate economic roles.   this is the negated statement of the conclusion.Hence Correct

(D) A technologically advanced society will place little value on the prestige associated with an economic role.  We know it places little value in the social system nothing is said about prestige of the role

(E) A technological innovation that is implemented in a social system foreign to the one in which it was developed will tend to undermine the foreign social system.
  Out of scope .We dont know how it treats the foreign system

ScottWalsh · Answer

Tricky one. The prompt describes the place of economic roles in a social system and then says that technology that disturbs those economic roles will underine the social system.

Many of the answer choices mention key words but answer C is correct. If the social system does not change, then the presence of economic role-disrupting technology is not present. If it were present, we know from the prompt that the social system would be undermined.

ArtVandaley · Answer

I completely understand that C is the correct answer. My concern lies in the leap of faith I had in the logical derivations.

If X, then Y. Then we can also say, if not Y, then not X.

Similarly technology will undermine social values.
So
"Not undermining social values" -> no technology.

A precisely states this.

A) Social systems will have unchanging values if they are shielded from technological advancement.

Can you plug the holes in my reasoning and help me understand the error??

Posted from my mobile device

rishabh1105 · Answer

"Technological advancements" is not equal to labor saving technologies. Also there might be other factors which could effect social system values, not just technological advancements.

rishabh1105 · Answer

All social systems are based upon a division of economic roles. The values of a social system are embodied in the prestige accorded persons who fill various economic roles. It is therefore unsurprising that, for any social system, the introduction of labor-saving technology that makes certain economic roles obsolete will tend to undermine the values in that social system.

Which one of the following can most reasonably be concluded on the basis of the information above?

(A) Social systems will have unchanging values if they are shielded from technological advancement.
We know that introduction of labor saving technologies undermines the social system values but there might other factors too that might change the values. So, saying social system values will not change just by protecting it from tech advancements would be wrong. (Passage nowhere mentions that it is the only way)
 
(B) No type of technology will fail to undermine the values in a social system.
Saying that all types of technology will undermine the values in a social system. Not sure. We only know about labor saving technologies

(C) A social system whose values are not susceptible to change would not be one in which technology can eliminate economic roles.
Interesting. It says a social system whose values are not susceptible to change would not be one where technology can eliminate roles. Because where technology can eliminate roles we are sure to see changes in social system values.

(D) A technologically advanced society will place little value on the prestige associated with an economic role.
We dont know how will tech advanced society react. We only know social system are based on division of economic roles

(E) A technological innovation that is implemented in a social system foreign to the one in which it was developed will tend to undermine the foreign social system.
We are not sure if this is actually a factor (the effects of where it was developed and the effect on others) So cannot be concluded.

VerbalBot · Answer

Automated notice from GMAT Club VerbalBot:

A member just gave Kudos to this thread, showing it’s still useful. I’ve bumped it to the top so more people can benefit. Feel free to add your own questions or solutions.

This post was generated automatically.

All social systems are based upon a division of economic roles. The va

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

All social systems are based upon a division of economic roles. The va

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards