June 1991 LSAT Section 3 Question 9

Fines levied against those responsible for certain environmentally damaging accidents are now so high that it costs a...

Juan.23 on October 23, 2021

Why is answer choice D incorrect?

I was able to eliminate the answers till I was left with A and D. I understand why A is correct, but I don't understand why D is incorrect. There are other people with the same question, but they haven't received a response.

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Naryan-Shukle on January 20, 2022

Hey @Juan.23,

Whenever we're dealing with Strengthen or Weaken questions, we always want to start by finding the error - we can't fix or break something if we don't know what it is we're trying to fix/break.

So, what's the error? Well, the author illicitly assumes that every business will always know exactly how much things cost. If that sounds unrealistic, it is. Businesses could have forgotten to factor certain aspects in their calculations. They could have underestimated chances of getting caught. The author has made themselves blind to the possibility that businesses will miscalculate. So to weaken, we need to expose this error.

(A): This does exactly that. It gives us one of these possibilities where the business fails to come to the same conclusion as the author.

(D): Okay...sure, but this has no effect on the author's line of logic. They could still be right, that businesses move to environmentally friendly manufacturing. Whether that business labels the fine as a business expense, or as an incidental, or as a Flimbob Florp, what difference does it make? They still pay the fine, and the amounts are the same. This answer doesn't help us expose the author's error. The conclusion could still stand here.