For our nation to maintain a position of economic strength

Question

For our nation to maintain a position of economic strength relative to other countries, it requires both accelerated personal investment levels and the unobstructed growth of production capacity, the factor which is known as A by economists and which increases grows largely spontaneously through society's development of technology. However, since technology development can be driven through economic support to individual entrepreneurs, ensuring these two key economic outcomes will require balancing these two kinds of financial incentives from the government to the individual.

If the statements in the passage above are true, for our nation to maintain a position of economic strength relative to other countries, it must

A. balance financial incentives to individuals, both to invest and to develop technology through entrepreneurship
 
B. balance two kinds of financial incentives: investment, on the personal level, and production capacity, on the level of the economy
 
C. drive accelerate personal investment while allowing production capacity to rise spontaneously
 
D. devote those financial incentives extended on the personal level to entrepreneurship
 
E. ensure that production growth remains unobstructed while balancing the two kinds of financial incentives driving personal investment

Dabhishek · Answer

1st two lines clearly says that factors required for economic strength are personal inv and inc in production.
only option directly dealing with these 2 is C
others mention these too but i think C gives clear cut ans to the que.

please correct me if i'm missing something :roll:

pkm9995 · Answer

I feel the answer is A. Ultimately technological development is what we want in society for a .This can be achieved through investment support and uninterrupted production. So by that logic A stands alone. My fingers are crossed by the way

b9n920 · Answer

Hi  pkm9995109794 ,

Sorry for late reply, but you are absolutely right. OA is A. I had a real tough time understanding the prompt, especially the last line:  ensuring these two key economic outcomes will require balancing these two kinds of financial incentives from the government to the individual. 
Can u pls suggest the meaning of this portion? What are 'these two key economic outcomes'? The answer naturally depends on this line.
Thanks.

AryamaDuttaSaikia · Answer

The two economic outcomes here are "personal investment levels" and "growth of production capacity" and the growth of these two factors depends on "society's development of technology".. Hence the only statement which must be true from the argument is "A".

kanigmat011 · Answer

Can somebody provide difference between A and B
Why B is incorrect?

as B also talks about "balance two kinds of financial incentives: investment, on the personal level, and production capacity, on the level of the economy"

pkm9995 · Answer

binit

ensuring these  two key economic outcomes  =ensuring  accelerated personal investment  levels and the  unobstructed growth of production capacity .

Divyadisha · Answer

can anyone pls suggest why 'C' is wrong? Thanks

b9n920 · Answer

Hi all,

I am posting the OE below. Frankly speaking I found the language of the Q far too convoluted. I wonder whether this is a proper practice Q for GMAT.

Explanation

Reading the prompt: it's relatively easy to get confused near the end of the prompt in this question. The last sentence mentions "two key economic outcomes" and "two kinds of financial incentives"--what do these refer to? One technique is to use the answer choices simply to understand a difficult prompt. Struggling test-takers do this all the time: they jump to the answer choices long before they're ready, because they don't know what else to do. We won't do that, but when we are having trouble understanding the prompt, we can use the answer choices...and then, we go back up and we'll still attempt to create a filter heading back down again to evaluate the answer choices.

Creating a filter: glancing at (A) and (B), we get the idea that "the two kinds of financial incentives" mentioned in the last sentence are 1) to invest and 2) to be an entrepreneur. That makes sense, because those two things are somewhat opposite and hence could be "balanced," as the prompt says. Having cleared that up makes it easier to see that the "two key economic outcomes" are accelerated personal investment levels and the growth of production capacity. Now we are able to form a filter, a brief summary of the last sentence: "the country has to encourage both investment and entrepreneurship in a balanced way."

Applying the filter: on first pass with this summary filter, (A) is in, (B) is out, (C) is out, (D) is out, and (E) is out. All of them except (A) have a miswording of the basic answer, which is to balance the two personal actions, investing and entrepreneur-ing. For example, (E) sounds good until the end, where it says both incentives drive personal investment. The correct answer is (A).

AryamaDuttaSaikia · Answer

You have to understand what the two economic outcomes are. These are to invest and develop technology through entrepreneurship." Production capacity" in itself is not one of the key economic outcomes. " Production capacity" is the factor which when increased by technological development through entrepreneurship becomes an economic outcome. Hence "B" and "C" cannot be the answers.

rsh12 · Answer

Growth in economy - two reasons - 
1) personal investment
2) production capacity -> technology development -> entrepreneurship

A - Correct
B - Wrong, since financial incentives needs to be for entrepreneurship not production capacity
C - Wrong - same as B
D - Only states 2nd reason. Nothing about 1st. Wrong
E - Only 1 financial incentive for Personal investment. Wrong

ShashankDave · Answer

what is the source of the question? First, the stimulus has grammatical errors. Then, the options are also not properly written. It took me forever to arrive at A. Experts, is this a GMAT-like question? if so, then please provide other questions such as this one to practice.

Shivamv · Answer

I got the answer right but can't understand a part of the question. " and which increases grows largely spontaneously" I'm just not able to make any sense out of this. Help would be appreciated.

somesh86 · Answer

Please check the explanation given by  rachitshah 
It is apt to understand this question.

RanjanSury · Answer

The two key economic factors implied here are personal investment levels and unobstructed growth of production capacity. Now for the latter we need technology development because it's growth is dependent on this.

On the basis of the above.

A is the best choice. 
 B. It applies not to production capacity but to technology. 
C is wrong it talks about accelerating the two outcomes whereas the prompt(while it accepts that acceleration is needed) highly stresses on the importance of balancing the two incentives. 
D. Not supported by the passage. It does talks not about devoting anything really but about balancing. 
E. This has a wrong meaning. The idea behind balancing the two kinds of financial incentives is to maintain a position of economic strength NOT to drive personal investment.

Pankaj0901 · Answer

I have the same understanding issue: "increases grows largely spontaneously". I can not find any explanation on this thread for this (from rachitshah or anyone). Can someone please help. Thanks

Pankaj0901 · Answer

"and which increases grows largely spontaneously" I'm just not able to make any sense out of this. Help would be appreciated.

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Pre-thinking:

The questions asks what is required for the nation to maintain a position of economic strength. As per the passage, this requires two things:

i) accelerated personal investment
ii) unobstructed growth of production capacity

(ii) can be ensured by development of technology, which in turn can be encouraged through economic support to individual entrepreneurs. Therefore, we surmise, for a nation to maintain a position of economic strength, the following two things are needed:

a) accelerated personal investment
b) economic support to individual entrepreneurs

Let us examine the answer options:

A. balance financial incentives to individuals, both to invest and to develop technology through entrepreneurship  Correct answer and fits perfectly with (a) and (b) above.

B. balance two kinds of financial incentives: investment, on the personal level, and production capacity, on the level of the economy  It is not evident from the passage that "production capacity" is a "financial incentive" by itself. Also, since it has nothing to do with the individual, how this option is a "balance" is not clear. Overall, since (A) is so much cleaner, we can eliminate this option.

C. drive accelerate personal investment while allowing production capacity to rise spontaneously  Same contrast issue as in (B) - it is not clear how personal investment and production capacity need to be balanced, as evidenced by the word "while". Eliminate.

D. devote those financial incentives extended on the personal level to entrepreneurship  It is not clear whether same incentives for personal investment would work for entrepreneurship. Eliminate.

E. ensure that production growth remains unobstructed while balancing the two kinds of financial incentives driving personal investment  There are no  two  kinds of incentives for personal investment mentioned or alluded to in the passage. Eliminate.

Hope this helps.

Srini

Crytiocanalyst · Answer

A. balance financial incentives to individuals, both to invest and to develop technology through entrepreneurship
This what can be infered and stated from the passage

B. balance two kinds of financial incentives: investment, on the personal level, and production capacity, on the level of the economy
Level of economy isn't clear there could bedigression from the real reason

C. drive accelerate personal investment while allowing production capacity to rise spontaneously
The paragraphs states to have a baance it cannot be made unaccelerated

D. devote those financial incentives extended on the personal level to entrepreneurship
One cannot nignore one level for other both has to be equally balanced

E. ensure that production growth remains unobstructed while balancing the two kinds of financial incentives driving personal investment'
it cannot be made unobstructed there can be up and down or rather change in propotionn of money

Hence IMO A

For our nation to maintain a position of economic strength

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For our nation to maintain a position of economic strength

Prep Toolkit

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

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