Politician: It has been proposed that the national parks in our country be managed by private companies rather than t...

Victoria on August 10, 2019

Hi @dace,

Happy to help! Let's start by going through the passage.

The politician concludes that "the privatization of the national parks would probably benefit park visitors."

Why? Because "a similar privatization of the telecommunications industry has benefited consumers by allowing competition among a variety of telephone companies to improve service and force down prices."

We are looking for the answer choice which, if true, most weakens the politician's argument.

Answer choice A is incorrect because it is irrelevant. The politician is arguing that the privatization of the national parks would probably benefit park visitors. The benefits would remain the same regardless of whether the process is politically expedient or not.

Answer choice B is incorrect because the politician's argument is about the users, as opposed to the providers, of the service.

Answer choice C is incorrect because it is irrelevant. The potential benefits to visitors are independent of people's awareness of the proposals for privatization.

Answer choice D is incorrect because the politician is arguing that privatization would benefit national park visitors. It is likely that this would benefit a smaller number of consumers to a smaller extent than the privatization of the telecommunications industry. Today, most people own a phone but only some people visit national parks. Regardless, this does not weaken the argument.

Answer choice E is correct because the politician attributes the consumer benefits from the privatization of telephone companies to the fact that it allowed for competition which improved services and forced down prices. If the privatization of national parks would produce much less competition between different companies, it is entirely possible that services would not be improved and prices would not be forced down, resulting in no benefits to park visitors. This weakens the politician's argument and is, therefore, the correct answer.

Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.