Neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade, by itself, est

true test: absense of trade deficit while increasing standard of living -> A
B is incorrect because trade deficit is eliminated at expense of standard of living
C is incorrect because standard of living is increasing at the expense of trade balance
D is incorrect because that's just horrible - huge debt and falling standard of living
E is incorrect because standard of living is funded with trade deficit

understanding the passage:-
Conclusion is : Both factors are required simultaneously .
Premise is : As standards of living increase trade deficit drops. But, when standards decrease then trade deficit

So answers should be saying, there should be a balance between both the parameters. Ideally, both should rise.

If the facts stated in the passage above are true, a proper test of a country's ability to be competitive is its ability to

(A) balance its trade while its standard of living rises - Yes
(B) balance its trade while its standard of living falls - Once increases other falls. OFS
(C) increase trade deficits while its standard of living rises- Once increases while other falls. OFS

(D) decrease trade deficits while its standard of living falls - Once increases while other falls.
(E) keep its standard of living constant while trade deficits rise - Once increases while other is kept constant.

Decoding the argument
"Neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade, by itself, establishes a country's ability to compete in the international marketplace. Both are required simultaneously"[conclusion (rule)]
"since standards of living can rise because of growing trade deficits and trade can be balanced by means of a decline in a country's standard of living." [Premise-supporting the concl]

The question stems asks us to test the country's ability based on the rule mentioned. "A" makes it clear that both are required.

Hi Expert,
I am confused between option A and B.
As per first statement in stimuli, i need both - rising standard of living and balanced trade to establish country's ability to compete. As per second sentence, if any one of these parameters decline it needs to be compensated by other. IMO, the OA should be B

adkikani,

As explained by Alexey1989x, the passage states that both a rising standard of living and balanced trade are required simultaneously to establish a country's ability to compete. If we only know that a country can balance its trade while its standard of living falls (choice B), we do not know whether it can balance its trade while its standard of living rises. Thus, we do not know if it can achieve both requirements simultaneously.

Neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade, by itself, establishes a country's ability to compete in the international marketplace. Both are required simultaneously since standards of living can rise because of growing trade deficits and trade can be balanced by means of a decline in a country's standard of living.

The first line expresses two conditions for the country to compete in international marketplace. The last lines are only to confuse you so that you chose a wrong answer. The two conditions are rising standards of living with balanced trade.

If the facts stated in the passage above are true, a proper test of a country's ability to be competitive is its ability to

(A) balance its trade while its standard of living rises
(B) balance its trade while its standard of living falls
(C) increase trade deficits while its standard of living rises
(D) decrease trade deficits while its standard of living falls
(E) keep its standard of living constant while trade deficits rise

Can you specify the CR question type please...

omkarmorde

This is an inference question in which we treat the facts given in argument as true and
derive what we can logically infer from it.

Let me know if this helps!

GMATNinja, I am unable to ascertain between choice A and choice E. From the logic presented in the argument, both the options seems good.

Can you please clarify my doubt here?

The only argument that I can figure is - The argument talks about balancing the trade but does not provide any information about keeping standard of living CONSTANT.

is the reasoning correct?

RMD007, I think you've got it! The passage says that a country needs both 1) a rising standard of living and 2) balanced trade in order to compete in the international marketplace. If a country has a CONSTANT standard of living, then it does not have a RISING standard of living. A country with a CONSTANT standard of living would not meet the first criteria and thus would not be competitive.

That's why (E) should be eliminated, and (A) is the best choice. I hope that helps!

Neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade, by itself, establishes a country's ability to compete in the international marketplace. Both are required simultaneously since standards of living can rise because of growing trade deficits and trade can be balanced by means of a decline in a country's standard of living.

If the facts stated in the passage above are true, a proper test of a country's ability to be competitive is its ability to

(A) balance its trade while its standard of living rises
(B) balance its trade while its standard of living falls
(C) increase trade deficits while its standard of living rises
(D) decrease trade deficits while its standard of living falls
(E) keep its standard of living constant while trade deficits rise

Reading first sentence gives a very important information which is,
rising standard of living + balanced trade = establishes a country's ability to compete in the international marketplace.

Now I can infer that the standard of living should only go up not down. Hence, I can safely elimionate B and D.

Trade should be balanced and the deficits should not increase. Hence, I can eliminate C and E.

The winner is A, which clearly says that the trade should be balanced and SOL rises.

Hi adkikani,

Even I picked B as the answer - but when I read through some of the explanations I realized why I was wrong. The choice between options A and B ,though obvious to people with a good eye, is very tricky . Lets break your query into two parts

WHY IS A THE ANSWER

If you read the first sentence of the questions you can simply decipher that both “a rising standard of living” and “balanced trade” establish a country ability to compete.

This is exactly what A states

WHY IS B NOT THE ANSWER

B just re-states a part of the question which is actually an explanation of how they the two elements can help a country stay competitive and NOT a must be condition for a country to stay competitive.

Think of a good grilled cheese sandwich - you need both good cheese and good bread to make a good grilled cheese, each of them separately cannot make a good grilled cheese. A good cheese can help enhance the taste of bread and a good bread can help enhance/balance the flavour of cheese. But in the end you need both good bread and good cheese to make a good grilled cheese sandwich. It does not mean that if a good bread can balance out the flavour of the cheese its a good grilled cheese, the cheese has to be good too.

Hope this made some sense - brb making a grilled cheese now.

GMATNinja just wanted to check if you think my understanding is correct?

Lets analyze the options... and run the POE..
Option B says "balance its trade while its standard of living falls". Now balancing of trade automatically happens when there is a decline in a country's standard of living ( refer to the last sentence of the stimulus)
So the country does not have to anything.

Option C says " increase trade deficits while its standard of living rises". Now " standards of living can rise because of growing trade deficits" . So again the country does not have to do anything.

Option D says " decrease trade deficits while its standard of living falls". Now may be this also happens automatically and the country does not have to do anything because " standards of living can rise because of growing trade deficits" and " standards of living can decrease because of decreasing trade deficits".

Option E talks about keeping standard of living constant which will help the country to be competitive as the country needs "a rising standard of living" and "balanced trade" and not constant "standard of living". So option E is not correct.

So option A is correct.

Please give me kudo s if you liked my explanation.


VeritasKarishma generis ...GMATNinja

We are asked what would be a proper test of a country's ability to be competitive based on the facts given.

In the first sentence we are told that "neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade" in isolation will give a country competitiveness.

THUS we can infer that the country must figure out how to balance both.

Eliminate (C),(D) and (E) as they all suggest a focus on one of the two.

Between (A) and (B), B goes against the stated relationship and the logical relationship.

The stated relationship is that a countries standard of living decreases if its trade balance decreases (opposite of the facts given).

Logically a country should balance trade while increasing standard of living.

Thus, A is correct.

Hello experts, GMATNinjaTwo GMATNinja

I am not able to understand this-
acc. to the passage, trade deficits can be balanced when S.O.L. decreases.

which exactly is B--> should be the answer.

"Both are required simultaneously since standards of living can rise because of growing trade deficits" -- 1
and "trade can be balanced by means of a decline in a country's standard of living."--2

how these two equations relate with each other?

I think, I am not able to understand the basic logic behind this question.

how A is the right answer?

When you're analyzing a passage, start by thinking about how the pieces of the argument fit together. Why did the author include each sentence?

The author concludes that "neither a rising standard of living nor balanced trade, by itself, establishes a country's ability to compete in the international marketplace." Instead of just one of these factors, the author argues that BOTH are required simultaneously.

This conclusion is supported by the following evidence: "standards of living can rise because of growing trade deficits and trade can be balanced by means of a decline in a country's standard of living."

This evidence shows that if a country only has one of the two factors, then that country is NOT able to compete in the international marketplace. So, we're not looking to match these words to prove that a country is competitive. Instead, we're looking for an option that has BOTH of the factors the author listed (rising standard of living and balanced trade).

Here's (B):

(B) is out because it matches the example of a country that is NOT able to compete.

Here's (A):

These are the two factors that the author cares about. (A) is the correct answer choice.

I hope that helps!

Sorry but I couldn't understand how a) is the right answer?