QUESTION TYPE: Flawed Reasoning
CONCLUSION: If a nation’s living standard is rising, it must have invested in infrastructure.
REASONING: If a nation doesn’t invest in infrastructure, it will lose wealth. And if a nation does invest in infrastructure, it will eventually gain wealth.
ANALYSIS: The argument’s conclusion incorrectly reverses the second premise. Infrastructure leads to wealth, but that doesn’t mean wealth can only come from infrastructure. Maybe the country just found a lot of oil – easy money.
___________
- This is not the flaw; we’re talking about a country with a rising standard of living, not a falling standard. This answer choice just contradicts a premise, which rarely leads anywhere.
- The argument allows for this. Those nations will simply become poor.
- The argument says “over time,” which includes the possibility of “a long time.”
- CORRECT. Yes. There could be other ways of getting wealthy, apart from infrastructure.
- So? If they neglect infrastructure for too long, they will get poor, according to the argument. That’s not a flaw in the conclusion.
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