What is the certainty of "Can"?

[shayh3]

Hi,

I apologize if this post is in the wrong place. I have come across this stimulus:

Between the summer of 1979 and the fall of 1982, unemployment in London nearly tripled. Such significant increases in England's unemployment rates during that period can be attributed to the country's adoption of the monetarist policies, since the number of unemployed rose sharply only after those policies had been implemented.

When I analyzed the stimulus I could clearly see where the argument was invalid, however, since the author used the word can, I decided that the argument was valid. I chose this because I thought that the author was not saying, for certain, that the monetarist policies was the cause of unemployment but was saying that the monetarist policies was "possibly" the cause.

In my mind using the word "can" in this situation is not a word of absolute certainty. Would someone be able to help me correct my thinking if it is flawed?

Best,
Shay

[Stephanie Oswalt]

Hi,

I apologize if this post is in the wrong place. I have come across this stimulus:

Between the summer of 1979 and the fall of 1982, unemployment in London nearly tripled. Such significant increases in England's unemployment rates during that period can be attributed to the country's adoption of the monetarist policies, since the number of unemployed rose sharply only after those policies had been implemented.

Hi Shay,

Thanks for the post. Unfortunately, I can't locate this LSAT question anywhere. Can you please point us to which test this is from, or the source of this stimulus?

Thanks!