LSAT 23 | Section 2 | Logical Reasoning: Q25

LR Question 25 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Economist: No economic system that is centrally…

QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Parallel Reasoning

CONCLUSION: Centrally planned economies have debt that amounts to at least 5% of their GDP.

REASONING: Central planning leads to inefficient allocation of resources. Getting a low debt requires efficient allocation of resources.

ANALYSIS: This is one of the rare logical reasoning questions that’s useful to diagram.

Low debt ➞ efficient allocation ➞ no central planning

central planning ➞ inefficient planning ➞ higher debt

It’s a good argument. It takes the first premise and combines it with the contrapositive of the second premise (low debt ➞ efficient allocation becomes “inefficient allocation ➞ higher debt”)

___________

1. This is a good argument, but it doesn’t take the contrapositive of one of the premises.
2. CORRECT. We get: rural districts ➞ no large concentration of automobiles ➞ no pollution.
    
   I had to take the contrapositive of this statement to make that connection: “pollution ➞ large concentration of automobiles”
3. This is a bad argument. Maybe ungulates are among the rare herbivores that often attack humans.
4. All rock stars that own companies get company pay, but the stimulus doesn’t say they get larger royalties for owning a company. They seem to only get regular royalties.
5. This is a bad argument. It’s the people who trade on inside information who can’t be unknown. But maybe some mutual fund managers are unknown.

Recap: The question begins with “Economist: No economic system that is centrally”. It is a Flawed Parallel Reasoning question. Learn how to master LSAT Flawed Parallel questions on the LSAT Logical Reasoning question types page.