LSAT 131 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q26

LR Question 26 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Commentator: For a free market to function properly

QUESTION TYPE: Sufficient Assumption

CONCLUSION: The auto repair industry isn’t a properly functioning free market.

REASONING: Free markets require that:

Buyers can contact a large number of sellers, and

Compare prices, and

Every prospective buyer must be able to do this.

ANALYSIS: I missed the third fact above. If you don’t spot that, this question becomes very hard. If you do spot it, the question is fairly easy.

Note that this is an extremely strict requirement. Basically every market would fail: a market would fail if even a single buyer was too incompetent to know how to ask around for prices.

___________

1. The stimulus doesn’t say that buyers must shop around. It says they must be able to shop around.
2. CORRECT. The stimulus is very strict: it says every prospective buyer must be able to shop around. So the fact that even some buyers can’t do this means that the auto market isn’t working.
3. Written estimates aren’t required. An oral estimate would be fine. Also, it’s not necessary that every repair shop gives prices: The stimulus only required that buyers be able to contact “a large number of prospective sellers”. That’s not the same thing as all.
4. So? The only requirements were that buyers were able to compare prices. The stimulus didn’t say that all prices from all sellers had to be fair.
5. So? Standardized prices aren’t necessary. All we need to know is that buyers are able to compare prices against worth. That might be possible even without a standard price format.