Economist: In today's post-industrial economy, higher education is ess

Question

Economist: In today's post-industrial economy, higher education is essential for achieving prosperity.

Without a college degree or higher, citizens do not have access to the highest quartile of salaries, and only individuals earning salaries in this highest quartile have enough disposable income to buy real estate and invest in long term assets.

The argument assumes that

A) all the jobs in the highest quartile of salaries require skills that are always covered as part of a college education

B) everyone in the highest quartile of salaries lives in a house that he or she owns

C) prosperity has to include ownership of real estate or long term assets.

D) understanding what prosperity is, from a college-educated perspective, is essential to achieving it

E) almost no one without a college degree owns either real estate or long-term assets

VeritasPrepBrandon · Accepted Answer

This argument can be broken up into:

Premise) Without a college degree or higher, citizens do not have access to the highest quartile of salaries
Premise) only individuals earning salaries in this highest quartile have enough disposable income to buy real estate and invest in long term assets
Conclusion) higher education is essential for achieving prosperity

On assumption questions, it is typically better to develop a solid understanding of the argument like this and then head to the answer choices without trying to predict the correct answer. Here I could see a pretty glaring error here though in its narrow definition of achieving prosperity even before I moved to the choices.

Answer choice A: This definitely does not have to be true. Maybe college degrees are just a vetting process? Also, the answer choice is very strong ("all jobs" "always covered")

Answer choice B: Definitely don't need to assume this. Maybe some people invested in long term assets but not real estate. Maybe they bought real estate other than their own house.

Answer choice C: This nails it. Negate it and plug it back into the argument, and you can see the argument gets crushed, and therefore this is a necessary assumption. Negated, this assumption would read: Prosperity does NOT have to include ownership of real estate or long term assets. If that is the case, then this argument becomes pretty silly, as the whole logic is based on achieving prosperity through having the ability to own real estate or invest in long term assets.

Answer choice D: Understanding what prosperity is has nothing to do with this argument. Maybe a lot of people who did not go to college and have not achieved it still understand it. This argument could still hold, and therefore this is not a required assumption.

Answer choice E: Irrelevant output question that is focused on the wrong details. We don't have to assume this; what if a bunch of people who did not go to college were given real estate as a gift or something? We already know that people without a college degree or higher cannot afford to buy real estate or long-term assets, so answer choice E is just doing a bad job at trying to confirm a premise that we already know, and is therefore not a required assumption.

I hope this helps!

apoorv601 · Answer

C
Conclusion - In today's post-industrial economy, higher education is essential for achieving prosperity
Premises - Higher education leads to ownership of real estate or long term assets
Thus Assumption - Prosperity = ownership of real estate

rajgurinder · Answer

Hey Tia

Well the key to solving such questions is to find the link.
In conclusion -- higher education is essential for achieving prosperity.
authors links "prosperity" to "higher education"
and then "higher education" to "salary and thus real estate".

So thats what C states

its like
A-> B and B->C

here option C states ---- A->C

Kudos please if it helps :-D

Abhishek009 · Answer

Higher education ----> Higher salaries(Prosperity) ----> Enough disposable income ----> Buy real estate and invest in long term assets.

The argument assumes that -

A)  all the jobs in the highest quartile of salaries  require skills that are always covered as part of a college education

B)  everyone in the highest quartile of salaries  lives in a house that he or she owns

C)  prosperity  has to include  ownership of real estate or long term assets .

Higher salaries(Prosperity)----> Enough disposable income ---->Buy real estate and invest in long term assets .

True the sentence talks only about highgher salary , prosperity and poseesion of Real Estate and Investment in Long term assets , nothing more than that.

D ) understanding what prosperity is , from a college-educated perspective,  is essential to achieving it  - Irrelevant

E)  almost no one without a college degree owns either real estate or long-term assets  - Over emphasises Properity and Owning Real Estate.

Hence IMHO (C) is the best...

Shiv2016 · Answer

Economist: In today's post-industrial economy, higher education is essential for achieving prosperity.

Without a college degree or higher, citizens do not have access to the highest quartile of salaries, and only individuals earning salaries in this highest quartile have enough disposable income to buy real estate and invest in long term assets.

The argument assumes that

A) all the jobs in the highest quartile of salaries require skills that are always covered as part of a college education

B) everyone in the highest quartile of salaries lives in a house that he or she owns

C) prosperity has to include ownership of real estate or long term assets.

D) understanding what prosperity is, from a college-educated perspective, is essential to achieving it

E) almost no one without a college degree owns either real estate or long-term assets

It was not very tough eliminate choices A, B, and D. Selecting between Choices C and E were damn confusing.

According to the argument:
Degree...............Salary........Disposable income..........real-estate and assets investment.........Thus prosperity.

Negated C: Prosperity does not have to include ownership of real estate or long-term assets.
Negated E: Some one without a college degree owns either real estate or long term assets.

Is this the correct negation of statement E ?

What is the best thing to consider while left with two similar looking choices?

Kurtosis · Answer

Yes the negated statements are correct.

The negated statement in E contains 'some', which includes a range of values from 1% to 99%. If only 1% of people without college degree owned real estate then it would not negate the stated relationship between education and prosperity. Hence E is incorrect.

Negated C: Prosperity does not have to include ownership of real estate or long-term assets. --> Negates the stated relationship between education and prosperity. 
According to argument: Education --> money --> assets - This defines prosperity.
When we negate C we get to know that prosperity includes other variables, may be something not related to money, and education may not be helpful to achieve that variable.

Shiv2016 · Answer

Thanks for your reply

So the whole thing about choice E is that it does not include 'many' or 'most', then it would have been the right choice because then it would be representing half or more than half of the people without college degrees that own real state......

sayantanc2k · Answer

This is an assumption type question. Option E may be an answer to an inference type question, but not an assumption type question - it does not bridge a gap between the premise and the conclusion, but it expresses something that can possibly be inferred from the passage. So even with the modification, option E cannot be the answer.

ravi19012015 · Answer

Hello experts,

Option A says All Jobs. Negating All gives Not All, which is 0-99. At 0, conclusion shatters completely, at 99 conclusion doesn't shatter completely. 
For the above reason, Option is a weaker contender for Assumption answer.

Reasoning in line?

sayantanc2k · Answer

First, I would suggest  not  to use negation test unless you really need to ( e.g., stuck between two options that you cannot eliminate) - two reasons for this suggestion: 1. wastage of time - some answers are very easy to eliminate without negating. 2. An inference may be mistaken for an assumption.

In this case the reason is 1 (wastage of time).

Premise: high education ---> high salary ---> buy asset  (---> prosperity) 
Conclusion: high education ---> prosperity.

It is evident that the last link highlighted in red (buy asset ---> prosperity) is missing in the argument. Thus A is not relevant, and C can be arrived at in seconds once you structure the argument in this manner.

aragonn · Answer

Official Explanation 
For an assumption, we can use the Negation Test. The credited answer is (C). If prosperity and ownership of property & assets are not essentially related, then folks with higher education could have the property & assets but not have prosperity. Negating this statement jeopardizes the argument, so this statement is an assumption of the argument.

Those skills may always be covered in college education, but perhaps folks can also develop those skills on their own, without a college education, and thus be capable of performing well in such a job, earning the high salary, and achieving prosperity --- all without a college education. This allows for an exception, so this is not a valid assumption. Choice (A) is incorrect.

Initially, choice (B) sound reasonably, but it's certainly possible that some rich person owns real estate as investments and, because of lifestyle, rents luxury apartments in two or three cities, rather than living in a house that she owns. This does not necessarily support the argument, so choice (B) is incorrect.

Understanding what prosperity is does not automatically result in achieving it, any more than understanding how digestion works might relieve really feelings of hunger! Choice (D) is incorrect.

Choice (E) is too extreme. The argument is making the case that one needs a college degree to get to the level of full prosperity --- real estate and long term assets. It's possible that someone in a lower paying job is part of the way there --- maybe owns a few stocks, or has no investments but owns a relatively inexpensive house. We can't make a clear yes-vs.-no distinction, total prosperity vs. absolutely no prosperity. That's too extreme. Choice (E) is incorrect.

Thelegend2631 · Answer

Are these type of questions representative of actual GMAT-Like questions ? I don't seem to remember any official Questions as such . Or is my memory Bad !

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma

KarishmaB · Answer

The OG/Verbal Review/Official Prep Test give you questions that give you a sense of what GMAT is about, the kind of questions you actually get and that is the only role they need to play.

A test prep institute has a much wider role to play. It needs to teach you fundamentals necessary for tackling actual GMAT questions. So, many questions would be written as intermediaries - they will help you practice a basic skill or they will help you develop analytical thinking or make you debate the validity of common assumptions you make etc. 
This question tests you on your understanding of necessary/sufficient conditions. That skill is extremely important for GMAT, even if it is tested in a more subtle manner (perhaps there will be one statement with a necessary condition which will be crucial but there will be other important aspects too.)
In any case, this question is certainly GMAT relevant, even if something like this is unlikely to appear in the test.

devil.rocx · Answer

Is it wrong to think that the statement says Higher education is necessary for a high salary. Thus, the argument is assuming that someone who doesn't have a higher degree cannot have high salary/money to buy real estate, etc?

reed990 · Answer

It seems the only reluctant way to accept E not the only is that it is "extreme", although it is true that C brings the bridge and is the best answer. Since it says higher education is "essential" for prosperity, it is assuming almost no one without higher education can get prosperity, which is E.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Economist: In today's post-industrial economy, higher education is ess

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