LSAT 155 – Section 2 – Question 02

LSAT 155 - Section 2 - Question 02

November 2019

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Question
QuickView		 Type Tags Answer
Choices		 Curve Question
Difficulty		 Psg/Game/S
Difficulty		 Explanation
PT155 S2 Q02
+LR
Point at issue: disagree +Disagr
Critique or Debate +CritDeb
Problem-Analysis +Prob
Net Effect +NetEff
A
0%
144
B
96%
160
C
2%
154
D
0%
139
E
1%
148
120
125
135
 +Easiest 145.934 +SubsectionMedium

Javier: Government workers are paid higher hourly wages than comparable private sector employees. So the government could save money by hiring private contractors to perform services now performed by government employees.

Mykayla: An analysis of government contracts showed that, on average, the government paid substantially more to hire contractors than it would have cost for government employees to perform comparable services.

Speaker 1 Summary
Javier concludes that the government could save money by hiring private contractors to replace government employees. This is because government workers earn more per hour than comparative private sector employees.

Speaker 2 Summary
Mykayla points out that, as shown by an analysis of government contracts, the government pays a lot more on average to hire contractors than it pays for government employees to do comparable things. Her implicit point is that the government probably wouldn’t save money by replacing government workers with comparable private sector employees.

Objective
We’re looking for a point of disagreement. The speakers disagree about whether the government could save money by hiring private contractors to perform services now performed by government employees.

A
the government could reduce spending by reducing the number of employees on its payroll
Not a point of disagreement. The speakers likely agree that the government could cut spending by reducing the number of its employees. The issue is whether replacing those employees with private contractors would cost more or less than keeping those employees on the payroll.
B
the government would save money if it hired private contractors to perform services now performed by government employees
This is a point of disagreement. Javier thinks the government would save money. Mykayla provides evidence suggesting the government would not save money.
C
government workers generally are paid higher hourly wages than comparable private sector workers
Mykayla doesn’t express an opinion. She doesn’t discuss the wages of government workers and private sector employees. She only discusses the amount the government paid for services. This doesn’t necessarily translate to wages, since payments can include various non-wage expenses.
D
every service that is currently performed by government employees could be performed by private contractors
Neither expresses an opinion. Nobody specifies whether every service could be done by a private contractor. In any case, even if they did express an opinion, there’s no indication the speakers have opposing views.
E
the total amount of money that the government pays its employees annually is greater than the total amount that it spends on contractors annually
Neither expresses an opinion. Javier discusses comparative hourly wages, and Mykayla discusses comparative payments on contracts, but neither discusses total spending on employees vs. contractors.

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LSAT PrepTest 155 Explanations

Section 1 - Logical Reasoning

Section 2 - Logical Reasoning

Section 3 - Reading Comprehension

Section 4 - Logical Reasoning

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