ashmit99 wrote:
Hoozan wrote:
ChiranjeevSingh GMATNinja I was down to option A and option B. The reason I let go of option B is because
(B) Those who support subsidies are not significantly more likely to vote than are those who oppose subsidies.
Negation of (B) Those who support subsidies are significantly more likely to vote than are those who oppose subsidies.
Now lets say there are 10 people who are supporters while there are 1M who aren't. So we can have a case where 9/10 supporters vote and only a handful of the total op-posers i.e.. 1k/1M vote.
We see that even though supporters are
significantly more likely to vote (9/10) as compared to op-posers (1K/1M) --This doesn't break the conclusion that "political candidates would increase their likelihood of being elected if they oppose such subsidies."
On the other hand if we see (A)
A. Most voters are well-informed about their elected representatives’ positions on subsidies.
Negation of A : Not Most / some voters are well-informed about their elected representatives’ positions on subsidies
If the voters are less informed how would they vote for their candidate based on them opposing the subsidy?
VeritasKarishma could you please help me with @hoozan's point? I have the same doubt and I used the same quantitative reasoning to reject B.
GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo
ChiranjeevSingh @CJAnish- Please see if you can help.
Thanking you in advance.
ashmit99:
When governments subsidize certain industries, owners and employees of those industries benefit
But the majority of consumers suffer.
Unsurprisingly, polling indicates that most people see industry-specific subsidies as unfavorable.
Conclusion: Political candidates would increase their likelihood of being elected if they oppose such subsidies.
Notice the conclusion "candidates would increase your likelihood of being elected" if they oppose subsidies. It is based on the premise that most people do not favour subsidies.
The question is: do these "most people who oppose subsidies" vote? What if very few of them vote and many of the ones who favour subsidies vote. Then you may be alienating a bigger chunk. Then can we say that you increase your likelihood of being elected? No, we cannot say it. Whether we actually increase or decrease our likelihood will depend on the actual numbers, but we cannot conclude that you will increase your likelihood of being elected. Hence our conclusion fails and that is what (B) says.
A. Most voters are well-informed about their elected representatives’ positions on subsidies.
Negated (A): Most voters are NOT well-informed about their elected representatives’ positions on subsidies.
Doesn't matter. Say only 30% voters are informed. The increase in votes that we are expecting will come from this 30% instead of 100%. The increase in votes may not be a whole lot but it will be an increase. That will increase the likelihood of being elected. It may not be enough to get elected but it will increase the likelihood of getting elected and that is all we are talking about. (A) is only decreasing the overall pool. It is not increasing/reducing relative number of opposers/supporters.
Answer (B)