#23 - A developing country can substantially increase its

[mokkyukkyu]

Hi, so I chose C but...
It says:
business people have little incentive to take this risk
So at first I was not sure it can say "can increase its prospects"...
Can I ask why it is OK to say so? Is it because in the stimulus it only says "little"?
I thought this is illegal negation (although I did not like other choices so I chose C...)

C says
incentive→eco. growth
But in the stimulus it says
little incentive→not invest
invest→eco growth　（contrapositive: not eco growth→not invest）
Assumption
not eco growth→little incentive
...does C represent this assumption (contrapositive)?
Did I think too much?

Thanks

[Adam Tyson]

You may indeed have over-thought this one a bit, but you were on the right track. The stimulus says they have little incentive to take the risk, but if they do take the risk the country can increase its growth. Therefore, it must be true that if the incentive to take the risk is increased, businesspeople are more likely to take that risk, and therefore the country could increase its growth. A key word here is "can" - the country can increase its growth if they do this. That's very different from "will". If the answer said that they will increase their growth, that would be a problem, because we would only know that it is possible, not certain.

[JD180]

You may indeed have over-thought this one a bit, but you were on the right track. The stimulus says they have little incentive to take the risk, but if they do take the risk the country can increase its growth. Therefore, it must be true that if the incentive to take the risk is increased, businesspeople are more likely to take that risk, and therefore the country could increase its growth. A key word here is "can" - the country can increase its growth if they do this. That's very different from "will". If the answer said that they will increase their growth, that would be a problem, because we would only know that it is possible, not certain.

So, The reason businesses don't have incentive is that upon success, others will invest in the same industry, cutting into their profits.

So we can say that businesses don't have an incentive to do something that will cut into their profits.

So the incentive provided by the government would have to be of a particular kind that protects these businesses from their profits being cutting into (or some other incentives, but we mustn't assume and anger the LSAT makers). However, C doesn't specify the kind of incentive the government would provide. But, since it said "incentives CAN increase its prospects for economic growth", we're covered, since certain types of incentives WOULD meet the requirements of the investor businesses, which COULD inspire them to invest and thus COULD/CAN increase the country's economic growth.

Is this the idea?

[Claire Horan]

Hi JD180,

I'm not sure I completely understand what you're getting at in your last paragraph, but it seems like you understand why C is the right answer. Although you may wish the correct answer choice was more specific, remember that this is a must be true, so the correct answer choice is something you know to be true based only on the information in the stimulus.

One comment I'll offer is it may help to remember that, in a must be true question, the correct answer choice is often a reasonable conclusion to the stimulus, which is a paragraph of premises. For this problem, if you read the stimulus, add the word "therefore," and then read the correct answer choice, it makes sense. This is because the conclusion does follow logically from the stimulus.

This is not to say to abandon tight logic; rather, this approach might help keep you from getting bogged down.

I hope this helps!

[ashleytanzer]

Why is E wrong?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi Ashley,

Answer E is not supported by the information in the stimulus.

The stimulus states that being the first to invest in a new industry is very risky. This does not mean or imply that not being the first to invest in a business is not risky. This would be similar to making a Mistaken Negation. For all we know based on the stimulus, investments in a modern industry could still be risky even if the country has at least one other business in that industry.