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Difficulty:
95%
(hard)
Question Stats:
30%
(02:29)
correct 70%
(01:33)
wrong
based on 27
sessions
History
Date
Time
Result
Not Attempted Yet
Commuter rail and rapid transit services are intended to provide for the general welfare of the population of a metropolitan area. For this reason, when a government takes steps to privatize part or all of a metropolitan rail service, political analysts consider that it has shirked its responsibility to provide for the general welfare.
The opinion reached by political analysts assumes that:
(A) Private enterprises can never provide for the general welfare of some populations. (B) Governments are responsible for ensuring repairs for metropolitan railways. (C) The Australian Kennett Government, which privatized Melbourne’s railway, did not consider the impact on the general welfare of the population. (D) It is sometimes not possible to cut costs while providing for the general welfare. (E) Cost should sometimes not be a factor when seeking to provide reliable metropolitan rail service.
Archived Topic
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Identify the conclusion and the premise(s): Premise: Commuter rail and rapid transit services are intended to provide for the general welfare of the population of a metropolitan area. Conclusion: When a government takes steps to privatize part or all of a metropolitan rail service, it has shirked its responsibility to provide for the general welfare.
Explanations: Identify question type and give some tips: The underlying assumption is that governments alone are responsible for providing the general welfare by fully assuring commuter rail and rapid transit service; commuter rail and rapid transit cannot serve the public good outside the government.
Scan each answer choice by eliminating progressively each “wrong” answer to finish with the “best” answer: (A) seems tempting but it is too broad and extreme, and does not refer to rail service specifically, so it does not have to be true. (C) is also too broad. (D) and (E) assume too much; we have not said that costs cannot be cut without providing for the general welfare. (B) is correct, albeit incomplete: of course we must assume the government is responsible for assuring repairs if we must assume they are responsible for the whole thing.
I see your reasoning, DrHuber, but this doesn't quite work.
First, it's not clear enough that A) is wrong. Sure, it isn't necessary for something to be true in ALL situations for it to be true in THIS situation. However, the argument does go from "privatized" to "not providing for general welfare." Therefore, A does seem to get at the underlying assumption. Further, if we negate this statement--"Private enterprises SOMETIMES CAN provide for the general welfare"--it undermines the argument.
As for B), the argument does not definitively rely on the government bearing responsibility for ALL aspects of rail service. Do they have to print the schedules? Provide the food? All we are told is that privatizing means shirking responsibility. It isn't actually necessary that the government do the repairs, either before or after privatization.
Archived Topic
Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
Still interested in this question? Check out the "Best Topics" block above for a better discussion on this exact question, as well as several more related questions.