The media claim that the economy is entering a phase of growth and prosperity. They point to lower unemployment rates and increased productivity. This analysis is false, though. The number of people filing for bankruptcy has increased every month for the last six months, and bankruptcy lawyers report that they are busier than they have been in years.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

Unemployment rates are not useful indicators of growth and prosperity.

Economic growth cannot be measured in terms of productivity.

Legislation has not been recently passed to make legal bankruptcy easier to obtain.

There has not been an increase in the number of bankruptcy lawyers.

The media often misrepresent the current state of economic affairs.

Answer: C

My question is - How can we rule out option A?
The explanation says: This statement does not have to be true for the claim that the media are wrong about the economy to hold. Even if unemployment rates are useful indicators of growth and prosperity, the media could still be wrong about the economy (e.g., if there are other indicators that show problems in other areas).

However, if 'growth and prosperity' are not the true indicators, the argument collapses. On the other hand, we can rule out option C on the ground that bankruptcy is not an accurate indicator of growth and prosperity so an increased number of bankruptcy does not really mean that the economy is not doing well.

Can someone please shed some light on this.

The argument is that since the number of people filing for bankruptcy has increased and the lawyers who deal with bankruptcy related cases are kept busy, the economists claim that the economy is prospering is false.

The author has to assume that somehow it is not any easier for people to file for bankruptcy.



First of all (A) is extreme in nature.
More conspicuously,let us assume for a moment that "Unemployment rates are not useful indicators of growth and prosperity", is not true . The claim(economy is entering a phase of growth and prosperity is false) still holds good if more people file for bankruptcy as the process of filing for bankruptcy were to be simplified). Hence the economy is going down.

(A) could definitely be an assumption( but not an absolute necessity for the argument to hold good) but this is already outweighed by the fact that the bankruptcy filing process should not be made simpler.

If (C) were to be false, ie; obtaining legal bankruptcy is easier now, this means that this could be the reason for increased bankruptcy filings.The media is judging that the economy is going down by observing the increase in the number of filings.If (C) were to be false then this is the reason more people are filing for bankruptcy and this has nothing to do with the economy whatsoever.
Therefore, (C) has to be true.

Very nice use of the negation test.

A couple of friendly amendements:

1) You write A could definitely be an assumption( but not an absolute necessity for the argument to hold good). Your earlier analysis suggests otherwise. If you can deny the claim and do no vioelnce to the argument, then the claim is not an assumption of the argument.

2) Excellent job on C, and to boil it down into words of one syllable, since negating C undermines the argument, C is an assumption. OK, those weren't all one-syllable.

3) C is also a classic assumption type; it eliminates an alternative explantion of the evidence. Because the conclusion, the economy is not really entering a phase of growth and prosperity, explains the evidence, there are more bankruptcies, the argument assumes that there is no other explanation of the evidence.