adkikani wrote:
generis GMATNinja KarishmaB gmatexam439 nightblade354 GMATNinjaTwo I loved this argument since it is so practical in real world
How many times we have seen a MNC firing off bottom non-performers in pyramid without understanding the reason for their act. A typical case
of 'Shareholder supremacy' in which numbers come before people, unfortunately.
I have a strong affinity towards (E)
Quote:
Economist: Every business strives to increase its productivity, for this increases profits for the owners and the likelihood that the business will survive. But not all efforts to increase productivity are beneficial to the business as a whole. Often, attempts to increase productivity decrease the number of employees, which clearly harms the dismissed employees as well as the sense of security of the retained employees.
E: Every business want to be more profitable
(y) So that business can earn maximum value for their owners and this is how a business survives in long run.
The
key word BUT next presents a contrast : not all[ efforts taken by company management
are beneficial to business holistically.
He
further explains this by chain of events:
attempts to increase productivity -> decrease the number of employees -> harms (a) the dismissed employees and (b)sense of security of the retained employees
So in an attempt to boost productivity, some people are laid off and those who are retained are fearing what will happen to them
Quote:
Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main conclusion of the economist’s argument?
Let me rephrase this as:
The author of the passage would most likely agree with:
Let me bring
relevant part of the passage and (E) side by side:
Quote:
Often, attempts to increase productivity decrease the number of employees, which clearly harms the dismissed employees as well as the sense of security of the retained employees.
Quote:
(E) Decreasing the number of employees in a business undermines the sense of security of retained employees.
(E) is simply paraphrasing the last sentence of passage. I can't understand why this can not be the main point of author.
On a detailed introspection, can I say (E) is incorrect since as per passage attempts to increase the productivity damages sense of security in retained employees
and as per (E) mass layoffs damage sense of security in retained employees? Is my PoE convincing enough?
adkikani ,
GMATninja2 's analysis of E is characteristically spot on. You wrote
Quote:
(E) is simply paraphrasing the last sentence of passage. I can't understand why this cannot be the main point of author.
Use the "trying to prove" test below. See what happens.
To express the main conclusion of the argument (per the prompt, because I am uneasy about the "most likely to agree" rewrite), we must paraphrase the "biggest" argument. (Among other things, premises can be opinions that are often mini-arguments.)
In this question, as
GMATninja2 points out, answer E is accurate. I suspect that option A was an even greater temptation than E. Answer A is accurate. Neither option paraphrases the main argument.
Re "relevant part": are you sure?
In LR and CR, the conclusion does not have to be the last sentence in the paragraph. The conclusion is what the author is
trying to prove.
Try
this test on each sentence in the prompt:
Is this statement what the author is trying to prove? Another test: the statement whose strength depends on the other statements is the conclusion.
We have statements W, X, and Y. Because they are derived from premises, conclusions are distinctively supported by other statements
in the prompt. The conclusion is X or Y.
If X
is supported by Y, then X is the conclusion.
If X
supports Y, then Y is the conclusion.
You asked whether your analysis for rejecting E were convincing enough. Please don't read the spoiler unless you know the answer
No. Because you have the wrong conclusion, although the distinction is clever, it is not the reason to reject E.
Having read YOUR spoiler (with which I agree), I think you might have been predisposed towards a focus on employees.
I can see how anyone would think that E or A were the answer. Both answers, however, contain the same mistake, perfectly explained by
GMATninja2 here:
Quote:
In general, don't get lost in the trees and lose sight of the forest! Sometimes we can focus so much on little technical details that we lose track of the author's main point and the importance of the author's word choices.
I hope these replies will help
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