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705-805 (Hard)|   Weaken|                     
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Harsh020
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Business are suffering because of a lack of money available for develo 29 Apr 2026, 20:55
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Hey AjiteshArun, thanks for replying. What I meant to convey was the meaning of the term "consumer" itself.

Lets suppose the concerned businesses in this context obtain a loan after the plan is implemented. Once they successfully obtain the loan, they become the CONSUMERS of this loan.

If instead the option had said that these loans are going to be used for the purpose of shopping, credit cards, personal loans, etc, then it would make perfect sense that the businesses won't get the benefit of this plan.
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Business are suffering because of a lack of money available for develo 29 Apr 2026, 22:00
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Harsh,

Two reasons why you should be tempted towards A..
1. Consumer borrowing means borrowing by individuals and not businesses/companies.
2. Even if someone overlooks the meaning while scanning options the first time, the almost all other options act as strengthener for the plan's success. After scanning all answer options, one has to come back to A.
Harsh020
Hey AjiteshArun, thanks for replying. What I meant to convey was the meaning of the term "consumer" itself.

Lets suppose the concerned businesses in this context obtain a loan after the plan is implemented. Once they successfully obtain the loan, they become the CONSUMERS of this loan.

If instead the option had said that these loans are going to be used for the purpose of shopping, credit cards, personal loans, etc, then it would make perfect sense that the businesses won't get the benefit of this plan.
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Business are suffering because of a lack of money available for develo 30 Apr 2026, 20:21
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Harsh020
Hey AjiteshArun, thanks for replying. What I meant to convey was the meaning of the term "consumer" itself.

Lets suppose the concerned businesses in this context obtain a loan after the plan is implemented. Once they successfully obtain the loan, they become the CONSUMERS of this loan.

If instead the option had said that these loans are going to be used for the purpose of shopping, credit cards, personal loans, etc, then it would make perfect sense that the businesses won't get the benefit of this plan.
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I get your point, but then there would be no need to specify that we're looking at consumer borrowing. That is, if everyone is a consumer at the end of the day, we would have no reason to say something like "consumer loan" (we'd just say "loan"). Adding the word "consumer" is a convenient and accepted way to refer to something related to people in their individual capacities (like consumer loans), as opposed to, say, business or corporate transactions (like corporate loans).

What you suggested may have made the option even clearer, but (a) GMAT CR questions must remain within a certain range (number of words) and (b) if we switched to a more wordy phrase, other people may have been confused by the et cetera (what does the etc. in "shopping, credit cards, personal loans, etc" mean?).
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Business are suffering because of a lack of money available for develo 08 May 2026, 08:34
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We need something that raises the most serious doubt regarding the effectiveness of the government's plan to increase the amount of money available for development loans for businesses:-

(A) When levels of personal retirement savings increase, consumer borrowing always increases correspondingly – weakener – as it says if people put bigger portions of their incomes into their retirement savings account, then, they are more likely to borrow money. Thus, less money will be available for loans for businesses.
(B) The increased tax revenue the government would receive as a result of business expansion would not offset the loss in revenue from personal income taxes during the first year of the plan – irrelevant comparison
(C) Even with tax incentives, some people will choose not to increase their levels of retirement savings – trap – irrelevant – classic statistical data trap
(D) Bankers generally will not continue to lend money to businesses whose prospective earnings are insufficient to meet their loan repayment schedules – strengthener – removes a potential hindrance in the success of the plan
(E) The modified tax structure would give all taxpayers, regardless of their incomes, the same tax savings for a given increase in their retirement savings – irrelevant – we don’t care about how tax savings people enjoy

Boil it down:
We have a problem
Government proposes a plan to solve the problem

Conclusion : the solution will solve the problem

Gap:
· Will the solution really solve the problem?
· Will the solution aggravate the problem?
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Business are suffering because of a lack of money available for develo 23 May 2026, 01:15
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One point that is confusing is , whom does borrowers refer to? Businesses? or just borrowers?
A. consumer borrowing increases correspondingly. but increase in consumer borrowing is decrease in busniess development loans is a big assumption here.

But yes. Between A, C. A is the better option. not a clear option though

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Business are suffering because of a lack of money available for development loans. To help businesses, the government plans to modify the income-tax structure in order to induce individual taxpayers to put a larger portion of their incomes into retirement savings accounts, because as more money is deposited in such accounts, more money becomes available to borrowers.

Which of the following, if true, raises the most serious doubt regarding the effectiveness of the government's plan to increase the amount of money available for development loans for businesses?


(A) When levels of personal retirement savings increase, consumer borrowing always increases correspondingly.

(B) The increased tax revenue the government would receive as a result of business expansion would not offset the loss in revenue from personal income taxes during the first year of the plan.

(C) Even with tax incentives, some people will choose not to increase their levels of retirement savings.

(D) Bankers generally will not continue to lend money to businesses whose prospective earnings are insufficient to meet their loan repayment schedules.

(E) The modified tax structure would give all taxpayers, regardless of their incomes, the same tax savings for a given increase in their retirement savings.
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Business are suffering because of a lack of money available for develo 03 Jun 2026, 07:31
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if option (C) said "Even with tax incentives, most people will choose not to increase their levels of retirement savings". Then still it wouldn't weaken the goal of the argument, right? Because as long as even few people increase their retirement savings, more money becomes available for business lending. Had the argument's goal been to increase money available for business lending significantly and the passage said that no person is a outlier who deposits a huge sum to retirement savings, then most people choosing not to deposit in retirement savings would be a weakener of achieving the goal.

GMATNinja please share thoughts.
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Business are suffering because of a lack of money available for develo 04 Jun 2026, 05:42
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Hi GulfTube,

You've actually put your finger on the exact knob this question turns. This is the same variant avigutman tackled earlier in the thread (the "some - most" swap), so let's run it carefully.

Here's the key: the stem doesn't ask whether the plan works at all - it asks what "raises the most serious doubt regarding the effectiveness" of the plan. The word effectiveness builds degree right into the goal. We're not grading the plan pass/fail; we're asking how well it achieves its purpose of increasing money for development loans.

Once you see that, watch what happens as we turn the quantity word:

- "some" won't increase savings - that leaves the rest (possibly almost everyone) increasing savings. The plan still pumps lots of new money in. No real doubt. - not a weakener.
- "most" won't increase savings - now the large majority ignore the incentive, and only a small slice respond. The pool of new money is small, so the plan is far less effective at its stated job. - that does raise doubt.

So your instinct - "even a few depositors means some money becomes available" - is true, but it answers the wrong question. Some money trickling in is exactly what makes a plan ineffective, even if it's not totally useless. As avigutman put it: if we learned only one taxpayer would respond, we'd absolutely doubt the plan's effectiveness.

Your own escape hatch - "unless the goal were to increase funds significantly" - is already baked in by the word effectiveness. You don't need the passage to add "significantly"; a plan that barely moves the needle is by definition not effective.

That's also why (A) still beats a hypothetical "most" version of (C): (A) says the new money is always siphoned off by consumers - a guaranteed, complete drain - whereas "most won't save" only shrinks the inflow. (A) attacks the mechanism harder.



GulfTube
if option (C) said "Even with tax incentives, most people will choose not to increase their levels of retirement savings". Then still it wouldn't weaken the goal of the argument, right? Because as long as even few people increase their retirement savings, more money becomes available for business lending. Had the argument's goal been to increase money available for business lending significantly and the passage said that no person is a outlier who deposits a huge sum to retirement savings, then most people choosing not to deposit in retirement savings would be a weakener of achieving the goal.

GMATNinja please share thoughts.
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