#18 - Dapolito: The city council recently passed a rent-control ordinance

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Justify the Conclusion. The correct answer choice is (C).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[ckk721]

This is a sufficient assumption question.

Premise1: city council passed a rent-control ordinance
Premise2: study of 15% local communities shows RC increases the price and lowers the quality and availability of rental units
CC: it's not the city council's goal to preserve the quality and availability of local rentals.

loophole: we don't know if opinion of 15% of local communities equals to the communities as a whole, instead of being unrepresentative

C. members in city council agree that rental controls increase prices, still implement it -- could imply that price/avail is not their concern.

[srusty]

Hi C, correct! We don't know whether the council members made the law with this intention, but answer choice (C) tells us they were aware of the study's conclusions and agree with it.

[alphonse92m@gmail.com]

Can someone explain why D is not the correct answer? I thought because the conclusion states "it's not the city council's goal to preserve the quality and availability of local rentals" that the city council was more interested in making a profit. Also using the mechanistic formula, profit was listed in the premise but not the conclusion.

[Jeff Wren]

Hi alphonse,

We know from the argument's premises that the city council recently passed a rent control ordinance and that (based on a recent study) rent control increases price and lowers the quality and availability of rental units.

What we don't know at this point is why the city council actually voted for rent control. It could be for any number of reasons.

The argument, however, concludes that the council's objective (meaning the reason why they voted for rent control) must not be to preserve the quality and availability of rental units.

The argument is making several assumptions here. First, that the council was aware of the results of this study. Second, that they believe the results of the study.

Notice that the council's "objective" is new information in the conclusion and will need to be addressed in the correct answer.

Answer C addresses the council's objective indirectly.

If the council knew about the study and agreed with the study's results and still voted for rent control, then their objective would not have been to preserve the quality and availability of rental units. If their objective had been to preserve the quality and availability of rental units, then it wouldn't make any sense to vote for something that they would expect to do the exact opposite of their objective.

This is why Answer C is correct.

As for Answer D, the fact that some members stand to profit from rental control does not prove that the council's objective must not be to preserve the quality and availability of rental units. For one thing, the word "some" literally just means at least one, so we don't know that the majority who voted for rental control had this profit motive. Second, even if some of the council do profit from rent control, they could still believe that rent control would preserve the quality and availability of rental units. For example, if they weren't award of the study, they might honestly believe that rent control doesn't lower the quality and quantity of rental units.