Economist: No economic system that is centrally planned can efficiently allocate resources, and efficient allocati...

Mehran on October 3, 2018

@smilde11 of course! Let's diagram the stimulus first:

"No economic system that is centrally planned can efficiently allocate resources, . . . "

ESCP ==> not EAR
EAR ==> not ESCP

" . . . and efficient allocation of resources is a necessary condition for achieving a national debt of less than 5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)."

ND<5%GDP ==> EAR
not EAR ==> not ND<5%GDP

"It follows that any nation with a centrally planned economy has a national debt that is at least 5 percent of GDP."

ESCP ==> not ND<5%GDP

Notice that this is a valid transitive argument:

ESCP ==> not EAR ==> not ND<5%GDP

This is a Parallel Reasoning question so we are looking for the answer choice with the exact same pattern of reasoning.

Let's diagram (B):

"All of the rural districts are free of major air pollution problems because such problems occur only where there is a large concentration of automobiles, and there are no such places in the rural districts."

" . . . such problems [major air pollution problems] occur only where there is a large concentration of automobiles . . ."

P: MAPP ==> LCA
not LCA ==> not MAPP

" . . . there are no such places [large concentration of automobiles] in the rural districts."

P: RD ==> not LCA
LCA ==> not RD

"All of the rural districts are free of major air pollution problems . . . "

C: RD ==> not MAPP
MAPP ==> not RD

Notice that this is also a valid transitive argument:

RD ==> not LCA ==> not MAPP

So (B) would be the correct answer.

Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.