A poor farmer was fond of telling his children: "In this world, you are either rich or poor, and you are either hone...

Tehran20 on October 23, 2019

Why A?

Confused on this one, would really appreciate some help!

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BenMingov on October 24, 2019

Hi Tehran20, thanks for the question!

This is a sufficient assumption where we need to find the answer choice that would provide the assumption that would logically validate this argument.

The reasoning in the farmer's argument is as follows:

You can be rich/poor, honest/dishonest (no middle ground). All poor farmers = honest. Therefore, all rich farmers = dishonest.

This is questionable reasoning. Just because all poor farmers are honest, what's to say that you can't be a rich farmer who is also honest.

That's where answer choice A comes in. If you state that "every honest farmer is poor", then you remove the possibility that a rich, honest farmer can exist, thus making every rich farmer dishonest.

Hope this helps!