Council member: The profits of downtown businesses will increase if

Question

Council member: The profits of downtown businesses will increase if more consumers live in the downtown area, and a decrease in the cost of living in the downtown area will guarantee that the number of consumers living there will increase. However, the profits of downtown businesses will not increase unless downtown traffic congestion decreases.

If all the council member’s statements are true, which one of the following must be true?

(A) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the number of consumers living in the downtown area will increase.
(B) If the cost of living in the downtown area decreases, the profits of downtown businesses will increase.
(C) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the cost of living in the downtown area will increase.
(D) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the cost of living in the downtown area will decrease.
(E) If the profits of downtown businesses increase, the number of consumers living in the downtown area will increase.

fitzpratik · Answer

Council member:  The profits of downtown businesses will increase if more consumers live in the downtown area, and a decrease in the cost of living in the downtown area will guarantee that the number of consumers living there will increase.  However, the profits of downtown businesses will not increase unless downtown traffic congestion decreases.

If all the council member’s statements are true, which one of the following must be true?

(A) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the number of consumers living in the downtown area will increase.  WRONG - No correlation between traffic congestion and number of consumers living in downtown area.

(B) If the cost of living in the downtown area decreases, the profits of downtown businesses will increase.  Correct - Implied in highlighted sentence

(C) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the cost of living in the downtown area will increase. WRONG - No correlation between traffic congestion and cost of living.

(D) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the cost of living in the downtown area will decrease.  Wrong - No Correlation

(E) If the profits of downtown businesses increase, the number of consumers living in the downtown area will increase.  WRONG - The cause and effect are flipped/reversed

Wonderwoman31 · Answer

Hi nightblade354,

Could you please look at the option choices for this question? Won't statement following however has any impact on answer choice.

Skywalker18 · Answer

Council member: The profits of downtown businesses will increase if more consumers live in the downtown area, and a decrease in the cost of living in the downtown area will guarantee that the number of consumers living there will increase. However, the profits of downtown businesses will not increase unless downtown traffic congestion decreases. Type-inference Boil it down- 1. The profits of downtown businesses will increase if more consumers live in the downtown area- "more consumers living in the downtown area" is a sufficient condition for the profits of downtown businesses to increase 2. A decrease in the cost of living in the downtown area will guarantee that the number of consumers living there will increase- "a decrease in the cost of living in the downtown area" is a sufficient condition for the number of consumers living there to increase 3. The profits of downtown businesses will not increase unless downtown traffic congestion decreases - "decrease in downtown traffic congestion" is a necessary condition for an increase in profits of downtown businesses (A) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the number of consumers living in the downtown area will increase.- incorrect- necessary condition is made a sufficient condition (B) If the cost of living in the downtown area decreases, the profits of downtown businesses will increase. - Correct- combines statements 1 and 2 (C) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the cost of living in the downtown area will increase. - incorrect- necessary condition is made a sufficient condition and then part(result aspect) is incorrect (D) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the cost of living in the downtown area will decrease. - incorrect- necessary condition is made a sufficient condition and then part(result aspect) is incorrect (E) If the profits of downtown businesses increase, the number of consumers living in the downtown area will increase. - incorrect- reverses the causality Answer B Wonderwoman31 , Hope this helps!

nightblade354 · Answer

Wonderwoman31 ,

You forgot to tag me! But no matter. Here is a diagram that I hope helps you and everyone else who may struggle on this. By the way, this is heavy with LSAT Lawgic; the GMAT won't usually force you to use sufficient and necessary conditions to answer questions (though this technique can really help)!

Decrease in Cost of Living Down Town ---> More Customers Living Down Town ---> Profits of Businesses Down Town Increase ---> Down Town Traffic Congestion Decreases 
 
 The answer to the question will be something that follows our path, and indeed the answer does

Wonderwoman31 · Answer

Hi  nightblade354 ,

Don't you think that for the profits of the business to increase both more customers should live in downtown, and downtown traffic congestion should decrease? But, Option B talks about only one condition. I wasn't convinced by the option choice. But, it was the only choice that could be deemed right among all the available answer choices.

nightblade354 · Answer

Wonderwoman31 ,

That is exactly what my diagram shows. If the first items occurs, then the second occurs. If the second occurs, then the third occurs. And so one and so forth.

nick1816 · Answer

There are 2 independent scenarios
1. CL decrease>>> Number of people increase>>>>profit increase
2. TC decrease>>> Profit increase

A. Not given
B. statement 1 clearly shows that
C. Not given
D. Not given
E. Reverse case

anothermillenial · Answer

The symbolic logic for the solution as follows:

P1: The profits of downtown businesses will increase if more consumers live in the downtown area.

↑DTC (increase # of downtown area consumers) ⇢ ↑ π

P2: and a decrease in the cost of living in the downtown area will guarantee that the number of consumers living there will increase.

↓ COL (decrease cost of living) ⇢ ↑DTC

P3: However, the profits of downtown businesses will not increase unless downtown traffic congestion decreases.

~ ↓ T (unless traffic decreases) ⇢ ~↑π

To find a conclusion, we combine the premises above to get:

↑DTC ⇢ ↑ π ................................................(From P1)
↓ COL ⇢ ↑DTC ............................................(From P2)
↑π ⇢ ↓ T ......................................................(From ~P3)
↓ COL ⇢ ↑DTC ⇢ ↑ π ⇢ ↓ T ........................(From P1+P2+~P3)

Now, comparing this against our answer choices, we have:

A) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the number of consumers living in the downtown area will increase. 
Not given....basically, concluding that ↓ T ⇢ ↑DTC, which is not matching any premise above.

(B) If the cost of living in the downtown area decreases, the profits of downtown businesses will increase. 
 ↓ COL  ⇢ ↑DTC  ⇢ ↑ π  ⇢ ↓ T

(C) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the cost of living in the downtown area will increase. 
This is a mistaken reversal of our combined statement (P1+P2+~P3): ↓ COL ⇢↑DTC ⇢ ↑ π ⇢ ↓ T.
 Mistaken reversal: ↓ T ⇢ ↑ π ⇢↑DTC ⇢↓ COL.

(D) If downtown traffic congestion decreases, the cost of living in the downtown area will decrease. 
Same as C. Also a mistaken reversal. Not necessarily true.

(E) If the profits of downtown businesses increase, the number of consumers living in the downtown area will increase. 
Same as C and D. A mistaken reversal.

nuevamateo20 · Answer

nightblade354

Although I got this question right, I have some reservation regarding answer choice B. I see the diagram that you did, thanks for sharing and it's very helpful. I'm having trouble seeing why the last sentence can be implemented as part of the flow in the diagram when we are not given any references explaining the relationship btw traffic congestion level and downtown biz’ profits. To put it another way, I’m having trouble understanding why we can choose answer choice B when we do not know if traffic congestion is / has been alleviated. Apology for any poor wording here. Hopefully my question makes sense.

Thanks for you help!

nightblade354 · Answer

Whenever we have a situation where we have X --> Y --> Z, it has to be that X --> Z; this is how the diagram connects. Let me give you an example: If you run really fast, you will win the race. If you win the race, you will be a hero. Therefore, if you run really fast, you will be a hero. The same principle applies, per logic. The sufficient condition triggers the necessary every time. As a result, a statement (Y in this case) can act as a necessary condition for X and a sufficient condition for Z. When X is triggered, Y has to and it follows that Z has to as well.

I hope that clears it up! If not, please ask.

RudreshKal · Answer

How can you conclude B is the ans when there is no correlation between More people living in Downtown equates to less congestion in traffic. We are extrapolating here by everyday scenario and not because of question thread logic. B could have been right if Last sentence was not there.

yc168 · Answer

OE for reference:

Overview:  
The question asks what else must be true if all of the council member's statements are true. We can express the statements in a uniform if/then form as follows: (1) if more consumers live downtown, then the profits of downtown businesses will increase; (2) if the cost of living downtown decreases, then more consumers will live downtown; (3) if downtown traffic congestion does not decrease, then the profits of downtown businesses will not increase.

The Correct Answer:

B  Given statements (1) and (2), (B) must be true. (2) says that if the cost of living downtown decreases, then more consumers will live downtown. (1) says that if more consumers live downtown, the profits of downtown businesses will increase. Putting these together, we get (B): if the cost of living downtown decreases, the profits of downtown businesses will increase.

The Incorrect Answer Choices:

A,C,D  None of the statements in the passage tell us what will happen if downtown traffic congestion decreases. The last statement in the passage might appear to tell us what happens when downtown traffic congestion decreases, but it doesn't. It tells us that a decrease in traffic congestion is a necessary condition for an increase in the profits of downtown businesses, which is equivalent to saying that if downtown traffic congestion does not decrease, the profits of downtown businesses will not increase (which is how that statement is represented in the "Overview"). Since (A), (C), and (D) are each about what will happen if downtown traffic congestion decreases, none of those statements can be inferred.

E  Statement (3) is the only one that tells us anything about what will happen if the profits of downtown businesses increase. Statement (3) is equivalent to saying that if the profits of downtown businesses do increase, then downtown traffic congestion will have decreased. But we can’t use statement (3) to make any inferences about what will happen if the profits of downtown businesses increase, since none of the statements in the passage tell us what will happen if downtown traffic congestion decreases. So there is no way to use statement (3) to infer (E).

Council member: The profits of downtown businesses will increase if

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

Council member: The profits of downtown businesses will increase if

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