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Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago.

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seekmba
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Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink] New post   Updated on: 13 Apr 2014, 04:19
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Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. Three years ago, Mainline hired QualiCo Advertising Agency to handle its promotions and advertising division. Today Mainline’s profits are over 20 percent higher than they were five years ago and 10 percent higher than they were three years ago. Employee ownership and a good advertising agency have combined to make Mainline more profitable.

Which of the following best describes the weak point in the argument above?

(A) It fails to establish a causal connection between the change in ownership at Mainline Airways and the hiring of QualiCo, on the one hand, and the rise in Mainline’s profits, on the other.
(B) It presents no evidence showing that employee-owned airlines are any more profitable than other airlines.
(C) It assumes that the profits of Mainline Airways will continue to rise.
(D) It gives no exact figures for the current profits of Mainline Airways.
(E) It fails to explain how the profits of Mainline Airways are calculated.
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Originally posted by seekmba on 09 Mar 2010, 14:37.
Last edited by ankurgupta03 on 13 Apr 2014, 04:19, edited 1 time in total.
added the OA
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Re: How to attack this CR - Mainline Airways [#permalink] New post   09 Mar 2010, 16:21
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seekmba wrote:
Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. Three years ago, Mainline hired QualiCo Advertising Agency to handle its promotions and advertising division. Today Mainline’s profits are over 20 percent higher than they were five years ago and 10 percent higher than they were three years ago. Employee ownership and a good advertising agency have combined to make Mainline more profitable.

Which of the following best describes the weak point in the argument above?

(A) It fails to establish a causal connection between the change in ownership at Mainline Airways and the hiring of QualiCo, on the one hand, and the rise in Mainline’s profits, on the other.
(B) It presents no evidence showing that employee-owned airlines are any more profitable than other airlines.
(C) It assumes that the profits of Mainline Airways will continue to rise.
(D) It gives no exact figures for the current profits of Mainline Airways.
(E) It fails to explain how the profits of Mainline Airways are calculated.


Straight-forward A, my take.

Mainline has huge employee stakes. Qualico, an advertising agency was bought. Today Mainline's profits are nice and healthy. So, huge employee stakes and acquiring an ad-agency are reasons for profits is the conclusion. Clearly, there is no proper justification for the conclusion. Anything could be the reason for the current profits other than the given two premises. The relationship posed is weak and open for a lot of debate. So that my friend, is the flaw in the reasoning.
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Re: How to attack this CR - Mainline Airways [#permalink] New post   10 Mar 2010, 07:34
OA is certainly (A). Thanks for the explanation.
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Re: How to attack this CR - Mainline Airways [#permalink] New post   20 May 2011, 15:20
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seekmba wrote:
Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. Three years ago, Mainline hired QualiCo Advertising Agency to handle its promotions and advertising division. Today Mainline’s profits are over 20 percent higher than they were five years ago and 10 percent higher than they were three years ago. Employee ownership and a good advertising agency have combined to make Mainline more profitable.

Which of the following best describes the weak point in the argument above?

(A) It fails to establish a causal connection between the change in ownership at Mainline Airways and the hiring of QualiCo, on the one hand, and the rise in Mainline’s profits, on the other.
(B) It presents no evidence showing that employee-owned airlines are any more profitable than other airlines.
(C) It assumes that the profits of Mainline Airways will continue to rise.
(D) It gives no exact figures for the current profits of Mainline Airways.
(E) It fails to explain how the profits of Mainline Airways are calculated.


Agreed-->
A - We do need to know how 2 things lead to the conclusion. Time period in itself is not able to create a causal connection. We need some thing such as... "employee productivity increased after employee take over and better advertising led to more clients thus company's profits increased ...blah blah"

But, choice B is not a bad option at all. In absence of A, I strongly believe this is a valid weakening contendor. Any takers for B in absence of A..... ????????
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Re: How to attack this CR - Mainline Airways [#permalink] New post   20 May 2011, 17:30
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At first instance I pick B but A is better.

The passage dis not mention anything about other companies, rivals and so on....BUT only that is profitable. The weak point is: we have some clue that say to us the reason why or better, a casual conclusion between that 2 elements and the rise of profits ?? No, so -> A is the answer.

however B is a good distraction
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Re: How to attack this CR - Mainline Airways [#permalink] New post   20 May 2011, 17:55
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carcass wrote:
At first instance I pick B but A is better.

The passage dis not mention anything about other companies, rivals and so on....BUT only that is profitable. The weak point is: we have some clue that say to us the reason why or better, a casual conclusion between that 2 elements and the rise of profits ?? No, so -> A is the answer.

however B is a good distraction


@carcass

The point here is that we are talking of more profitability. As mentioned in the stimulus conclusion:
Employee ownership and a good advertising agency have combined to make Mainline [highlight]more profitable[/highlight].

One more correction I would like to make is that in strengthening and weakening, you can always introduce new elements in picture, so deleting them on the basis of being external would eliminate valid choices.

Upon another look, I found that B talks only about one component ie "employee-owned airlines" and completely neglects QualiCo contribution. That seems to be a little minus in comparing B with A. But, I am still looking for a strong reason to kick B out. :?

CR champions --> F1 F1
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Re: How to attack this CR - Mainline Airways [#permalink] New post   21 May 2011, 17:10
joshnsit wrote:
carcass wrote:
At first instance I pick B but A is better.

The passage dis not mention anything about other companies, rivals and so on....BUT only that is profitable. The weak point is: we have some clue that say to us the reason why or better, a casual conclusion between that 2 elements and the rise of profits ?? No, so -> A is the answer.

however B is a good distraction


@carcass

The point here is that we are talking of more profitability. As mentioned in the stimulus conclusion:
Employee ownership and a good advertising agency have combined to make Mainline [highlight]more profitable[/highlight].

One more correction I would like to make is that in strengthening and weakening, you can always introduce new elements in picture, so deleting them on the basis of being external would eliminate valid choices.

Upon another look, I found that B talks only about one component ie "employee-owned airlines" and completely neglects QualiCo contribution. That seems to be a little minus in comparing B with A. But, I am still looking for a strong reason to kick B out. :?

CR champions --> F1 F1


I believe that you are looking at the question in the wrong way (in my opinion) :)

here the point is NOT more profitable, less profitable and so on: this is not the real point.

On one hand we know that the company earn more money, ok, that say.

On the other hand the stimulus says: Which of the following best describes the weak point in the argument above ?

choice B suggest in somehow a general reason which demolishes the argument, instead A says: 2 (employee-owned)+2(QualiCo)= 4 (more profitable, little more profitable....who cares).......no evidence !!!!!
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Re: How to attack this CR - Mainline Airways [#permalink] New post   21 May 2011, 18:07
After choice A; B can be 2nd weak attempt for this but than it doesn't say anything about promotions/advertising campaign. So take should be A.
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Re: How to attack this CR - Mainline Airways [#permalink] New post   25 May 2011, 03:18
amit2k9 wrote:
its a clean A.

Why not B?
Would you have selected B in absence of A?
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Re: How to attack this CR - Mainline Airways [#permalink] New post   25 May 2011, 03:39
In the absense of A, I would take E.
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Re: Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink] New post   28 Aug 2012, 12:03
joshnsit wrote:
amit2k9 wrote:
its a clean A.

Why not B?
Would you have selected B in absence of A?


B is wrong..

is stimus contain anything abt other airlines?? its irrelavant to the conclusion.. it is not hitting the conclusion.. we dont need to hit by comparing with other companies?? we just care with mainline..
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Re: Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink] New post   29 Aug 2012, 12:14
missed that one its a easy question
the length of the option deceived me
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Re: Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink] New post   31 Aug 2012, 03:18
Between A & B.

B is "The Shell Game" distraction.

Therefore A is correct.
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Re: Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink] New post   12 Apr 2014, 05:10
I don't know why people have a believe that choice (B) is a good contender.

IMHO, the stimulus is talking about profit comparison of same company at different times.

'More profitable' in the conclusion compares the current profit of the company with that in past.

So choice (A) is best
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Re: Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink] New post   17 Mar 2015, 20:31
Explanation for choice A

Type weaken

Conclusion: Employee ownership and advertising agency => Mainline more profitable

Assumption: Employess ownership and advertising agency cause mainline more profitable.

Break he assumption: there are other factorthat caused Mainline become more profit
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Re: Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink] New post   13 Dec 2019, 22:47
Two actions were taken by Airline and after years Airline claims profit increase due to the actions taken.
Correlation to causation error.
Choice A indicates that flaw.
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Re: Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink] New post   28 Jan 2020, 22:36
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Argument: Employees bought the airways. They hired the advertising agency. And their profits shot up.
Conclusion: Employee ownership and good advertising agency is the reason behind the profit.
Assumption: There is a connection between employee ownership and profits.

Which of the following best describes the weak point in the argument above?

(A) It fails to establish a causal connection between the change in ownership at Mainline Airways and the hiring of QualiCo, on the one hand, and the rise in Mainline’s profits, on the other.
Correct. Came to this through POE.

(B) It presents no evidence showing that employee-owned airlines are any more profitable than other airlines.
Wrong. We are not comparing or discussing about other airline.

(C) It assumes that the profits of Mainline Airways will continue to rise.
Wrong. We are only talking about past figures and not the future profits.

(D) It gives no exact figures for the current profits of Mainline Airways.
Wrong. We don't need it. We have the percentage values to determine.

(E) It fails to explain how the profits of Mainline Airways are calculated.
Wrong. We don't need their accounting method.
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Re: Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink] New post   11 Aug 2020, 09:39
even after reading all the replies, its still hard for me to agree with option A as the answer.!!!!!
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Re: Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink] New post   20 Jun 2023, 06:50
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Re: Mainline Airways was bought by its employees six years ago. [#permalink]
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