QUESTION TEXT: Commentator: The worldwide oil crisis of 1973…
QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
CONCLUSION: The worldwide oil crisis in 1973 was not the result of an oil shortage, but rather collusion between countries producing oil and oil companies to restrict the supply and profit.
REASONING: Profits of oil companies and income of oil producing countries increased after 1973.
ANALYSIS: The author says that the crisis was manufactured by companies and oil-producing countries, and points to the increase in profits as evidence. The problem is that there’s no other evidence. You can’t just take an increase in profits and assume it was manufactured with no other evidence. It’s entirely possible that their profits increased without them doing anything to cause it.
___________
- CORRECT. See above.
- The argument doesn’t say that nobody else profited, so that can’t be the flaw.
- The term profit isn’t ambiguous here. It’s clearly about financial profit.
- The argument doesn’t establish that there was a surplus, but it doesn’t have to. That’s not the flaw.
- The argument doesn’t fail to consider that events that occur simultaneously are related. In fact, it assumes that the two events are related!
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