PrepTest 138, Section 4, Question 13
Many economists claim that financial rewards provide the(48 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(6 more words not shown)
- AEven high wages(11 more words not shown)
- BIn many surveys,(17 more words not shown)
- CJobs that pay(11 more words not shown)
- DMany people enjoy(16 more words not shown)
- ESome people are(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Would you take a 10 percent raise if it meant giving up remote work and moving somewhere you didn't want to live? Maybe not. A much larger raise might change your mind. Money plainly matters, but its importance relative to everything else is a real question.
The author tries to settle that question with surveys. Most respondents don't name high salary as the most desirable job feature, so the author concludes that economists overstate the importance of money.
Do people always tell a survey what actually drives their choices?
Someone might say work-life balance matters most because that sounds better than saying money. They might even misunderstand their own priorities. I'd initially look for a weakener showing that the survey responses don't accurately reflect how people choose jobs.
What we’re looking for
We don't have to prove money is everyone's top priority. We need a reason why these survey results are a poor basis for dismissing the economists' broader claim.
Working the answers
- A
High wages needn't buy everything a person wants to be a strong incentive. Someone could care most about money while still having wants that even a high salary wouldn't satisfy. A doesn't show why the survey results misrepresent the importance of financial rewards.
- B
If two jobs are otherwise identical, choosing the higher salary shows that people prefer more money when they give up nothing to get it. It doesn't tell us how they rank money against location, working hours or other features. The argument concerns the strongest incentive, so we need information about those tradeoffs. B removes the tradeoffs instead.
- CCorrect
There is another problem with the surveys: salary isn't the whole financial package. Health coverage, retirement contributions, a pension or other financial benefits can differ substantially between jobs with the same salary.
A person could decline to call high salary the most desirable feature while caring very much about those other financial rewards. That makes the survey answer compatible with the economists' claim. C doesn't establish that respondents were lying, as I first wondered. It shows that an honest answer about salary can still fail to measure the broader importance of money.
- D
Enjoying a challenge gives people one possible reason to like a job. It doesn't tell us how that reason compares with financial rewards when choosing between jobs. The economists needn't deny that people value anything besides money.
- E
Some people's lack of awareness about recreation time doesn't explain why the survey's salary responses undermine or support the broader claim about financial incentives. We aren't told how those people answered, what jobs they chose or how they ranked the competing benefits. E leaves the key comparison unresolved.
More Weaken questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Weaken questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.