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The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increa

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Bunuel
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The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increa [#permalink] New post   22 Jan 2021, 10:44
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The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increased dramatically in the last two decades. In 1990, the average credit card debt for each house-hold with at least one credit card was $2,966. By 2005, that amount had risen to $9,205. In the same period, the number of bankruptcies filed in America nearly doubled. Clearly, increased credit card debt among Americans has led to the rising number of bankruptcy filings.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author’s conclusion?

(A) In addition to credit card debt, most people who file for bankruptcy have other large debts like medical or legal bills.
(B) The bankruptcies mentioned in the argument include business bankruptcies, which account for a large percent- age of all bankruptcies.
(C) Increased housing values have also led to larger mortgages, but having large mortgages rarely leads to bankruptcy.
(D) The citizens of other nations have much lower levels of debt and are much less likely to file for bankruptcy.
(E) The average interest rate on credit cards is nearly 20 percent per year, and many Americans can only afford to pay the interest.
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VBudhew
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Re: The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increa [#permalink] New post   22 Jan 2021, 21:26
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IMO A

it states that credit card was not the only reason for bankruptcy
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Re: The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increa [#permalink] New post   22 Jan 2021, 23:07
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I think it should be B

Option A mentions that there are other reasons for bankruptcy like medical or legal bills so clearly it’s not just credit card debt - but the conclusion in the passage above doesn’t say “only” credit card debt or that credit card debt is the “main reason/contributor” for bankruptcies.

Option B states that most of the bankruptcies are business bankruptcies (and not household bankruptcies) - whereas the credit card debt mentioned in the passage/line of argument above is that of the households (and not businesses). Hence it weakens the conclusion that increased credit card debt (of the households) is the reason behind increased bankruptcies (out of which business bankruptcies represent a large percentage).

Option C doesn’t talk about the relationship between credit card debt and bankruptcies (the main point of the conclusion).

Option D talks about citizens of other nations which is irrelevant.

Option E mentions (one of) the reason(s) for increased credit card debt but again that doesn’t weaken the conclusion.

First attempt ever at writing a reply to a question here on GMAT Club, so please be gentle on me guys in case I’m not correct. 😊
Cheers!

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Re: The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increa [#permalink] New post   28 Jan 2021, 05:20
The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increased dramatically in the last two decades. In 1990, the average credit card debt for each house-hold with at least one credit card was $2,966. By 2005, that amount had risen to $9,205. In the same period, the number of bankruptcies filed in America nearly doubled. Clearly, increased credit card debt among Americans has led to the rising number of bankruptcy filings.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author’s conclusion?

(A) In addition to credit card debt, most people who file for bankruptcy have other large debts like medical or legal bills. Correct

(B) The bankruptcies mentioned in the argument include business bankruptcies, which account for a large percent- age of all bankruptcies. Incorrect

support conclusion

(C) Increased housing values have also led to larger mortgages, but having large mortgages rarely leads to bankruptcy. Incorrect

support conclusion

(D) The citizens of other nations have much lower levels of debt and are much less likely to file for bankruptcy. Incorrect

so, higher debt > higher bankruptcy, support conclusion

(E) The average interest rate on credit cards is nearly 20 percent per year, and many Americans can only afford to pay the interest. Incorrect

this indicate debt is the reason for bankruptcy
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Re: The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increa [#permalink] New post   02 Feb 2021, 20:39
Hello Bunuel
Isn't the business aspect already mentioned in the argument(Businesses too are affected by credit cards), hence taking option B out of the weakner's race.
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Re: The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increa [#permalink] New post   18 Mar 2021, 23:45
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Not really convinced between A and B. This is how I looked at it:-

Our argument confuses correlation (increase in credit card debt and doubling of the number of bankruptcies) with causation.

(A) In addition to credit card debt, most people who file for bankruptcy have other large debts like medical or legal bills. -- This argument says that hold on, there could be cause B or C among the population filing for bankruptcy. This makes the information that cause A (credit card debt) is leading to bankruptcy suspect. Had the sentence said "larger". This would have been a no-brainer answer.

(B) The bankruptcies mentioned in the argument include business bankruptcies, which account for a large percent- age of all bankruptcies. -- Okay, first of all i'm confused by what is "large"? Even 30% would be large for some? This isn't proving anything. But assuming that the "large %" remains constant, then it does show perhaps that the rising bankruptcies have business reasons? aka reason other than one mentioned in the argument? It would weaken the argument in that case.

Selected B as a guess but i cannot understand any solid ground for eliminating A.
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Re: The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increa [#permalink] New post   18 Mar 2021, 23:46
jarlgrey wrote:
I think it should be B

Option A mentions that there are other reasons for bankruptcy like medical or legal bills so clearly it’s not just credit card debt - but the conclusion in the passage above doesn’t say “only” credit card debt or that credit card debt is the “main reason/contributor” for bankruptcies.

Option B states that most of the bankruptcies are business bankruptcies (and not household bankruptcies) - whereas the credit card debt mentioned in the passage/line of argument above is that of the households (and not businesses). Hence it weakens the conclusion that increased credit card debt (of the households) is the reason behind increased bankruptcies (out of which business bankruptcies represent a large percentage).

Option C doesn’t talk about the relationship between credit card debt and bankruptcies (the main point of the conclusion).

Option D talks about citizens of other nations which is irrelevant.

Option E mentions (one of) the reason(s) for increased credit card debt but again that doesn’t weaken the conclusion.

First attempt ever at writing a reply to a question here on GMAT Club, so please be gentle on me guys in case I’m not correct. 😊
Cheers!

Posted from my mobile device


Option B does not say "most" - careful there. If it had said "most", then yes, it would be on a stronger footing vis-a-vis A. In CR, be careful of the quantitative markers (some, most, all, none, many, etc..) and their interpretation.
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Re: The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increa [#permalink] New post   10 Dec 2021, 20:10
This is a bit confusing one, here's my understanding,

In option A it is mentioned that along with the credit card debt, people who file bankruptcy also hold other debts such as medical and legal bills. Hence, it is clear that those people also hold credit card debts and hence increase in credit card debts is contributing for an increase in the total number of bankruptcies, no matter what the people who hold the debt's mindset is.

In option B it states business bankruptcies, though it is not clear whether business bankruptcies include credit card debts, among the options present B serves the purpose well.
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Re: The total debt owed by America’s house holds and businesses has increa [#permalink]
10 Dec 2021, 20:10
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