GetThisDone wrote:
The public often protests when an unregulated service industry is found to be corrupt. However, regulation often leads to increased costs for the consumer. Fewer companies survive in a regulated market, leading to decreased competition and higher prices. The public then responds negatively to the increased costs of these services.
The statements above best support which of the following?
A. Service industries should not be regulated.
B. The public should not protest unregulated services.
C. Only unregulated services are subject to public protest.
D. The public is sometimes the cause of its own complaints.
E. Decreased competition always leads to increased prices
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
The passage describes how public complaints about one issue (corruption in unregulated service industries) can have consequences (increased costs) that lead to new public complaints. The correct answer will tie together this information without assuming too much.
(A) This answer choice is too extreme. While regulation does often result in increased costs, which consumers don't like, the regulation presumably halts the corruption, which consumers also don't like.
(B) This answer choice is a judgment call based on the idea that the increased costs are less desirable than the corruption. The passage does not provide information to support this claim.
(C) The passage doesn't address what types of services are subject to public protest. In addition, the word "only" is extreme.
(D) CORRECT. This answer summarizes what the passage describes – a cycle of public discontent. Notice that the correct “inference” or “conclusion” here isn't much more than a summary of the premises in the passage.
(E) In the passage, the author says "regulation often leads to increased costs for the consumer" due to decreased competition. Always is not the same as often. This answer choice is too extreme.
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