Critics view automation, the production of more with less

Question

Critics view automation, the production of more with less, as a net negative—fewer auto plant jobs mean fewer paychecks, they reason. Yet technological improvement is one of the main ingredients of economic growth. It means increasing wages and a higher standard of living for workers who retain their jobs. Displaced workers learn new skill sets, and these workers find their skills are put to more productive use.

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage above?
A. There are some technological improvements that even after promoting an improved standard of living do not win critics’ acclaim.
B. Technological improvement is a bigger contributor to job losses than outsourcing.
C. Technologies that make people more efficient lead to a net job loss
D. There are no new jobs added as the new technologies are introduced in production plants.
E. There are cost effective avenues that provide new skills to people who lose their jobs because of advancements in technology.

aditya8062 · Answer

A seems best :  There are some technological improvements that even after promoting an improved standard of living do not win critics’ acclaim

it cannot be E  as the passage is talking just about : Displaced workers learn new skill sets . it is not talking if there are cost effective avenues that provide these new skill sets

it cannot be D  as passage is talking about new jobs being added .Also we cannot be 100 % sure whether these jobs are added to the same production plant from where worker's were removed or to some other plant

what is the source of this question?

sahil7389 · Answer

This is very hard question. I was in a fix for 3-4 minutes and was confused between A and E. After analysing the content I came to conclusion A should be the answer.
E cannot be the answer as it talks about  cost effective avenues  and we have to find inference so we cant go beyond what is discussed in para, where as A talks exactly what is discussed in para. So finally asnwer should be A.

souvik101990 · Answer

Agreed with A. What's the source though?

sallysea · Answer

Please, specify the source of the question

icandoit1995 · Answer

this is from e-Gmat. I chose A as well by POE but still are not crystal clear why A is correct. Could anyone provide any other explanation? Tks

VIPINV00000 · Answer

Can anyone explain why not option C ?

svasan05 · Answer

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage above?

A. There are some technological improvements that even after promoting an improved standard of living do not win critics’ acclaim.  Correct answer. We know that technological improvements lead to better standard of living but automation, which is a form of technological innovation, does not win critics' acclaim.

B. Technological improvement is a bigger contributor to job losses than outsourcing.  Nothing about outsourcing in the passage - cannot be inferred. Eliminate.

C. Technologies that make people more efficient lead to a net job loss  We know that this is an argument against automation but we do not know whether this is true of all technological innovation. Eliminate.

D. There are no new jobs added as the new technologies are introduced in production plants.  We do not know this from the passage. While it is argued by critics that some jobs are lost, other jobs may be added. Eliminate.

E. There are cost effective avenues that provide new skills to people who lose their jobs because of advancements in technology.  While the passage does state such people will get new skills, we do not know if there are cost effective avenues to provide such skills. Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

Anandanwar · Answer

Hello,

A says "There are some technological improvements that EVEN AFTER PROMOTING AN IMPROVED STANDARD OF LIVING do not win critics??? acclaim."

The argument does not mention that the improved standard of living have been promoted or that critics are well aware of the improvement.

This is the reason I chose E: the workers are out of job. Now if they are able to learn new skill without having salary, then it is reasonable to say "cost effective avenues".

Could you please point to the error in my reasoning?
Regards,
Ankit

DmitryFarber · Answer

Answer choice A doesn't rely on critics' awareness of the improvement. In this context, "promoting" means "causing" or "advancing." It's not about promotion in the sense of marketing or raising awareness. So all A is doing is joining together two things we've been told: 1) automation is a technological improvement that raises living standards and 2) critics see automation as a negative. So it is an example of a technological improvement that critics don't like, even though it promotes an improved standard of living.

As for E, we don't know how workers get retrained, what the cost is, or who pays it. So we can't say that the retraining is cost-effective. For all we know, each worker could be taking on massive debt to finance their training, or companies or governments could be paying the bill.

Critics view automation, the production of more with less

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Critics view automation, the production of more with less

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