PT108.S1.P3.Q21

PrepTest 108 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 21

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P1

Many people complain about corporations, but there are also those whose criticism goes further and who hold corporations morally to blame for many of the problems in Western society. █████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██████ █████████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ███

Some people's view · Corporations are immoral when they ignore their impacts on the public good
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Economists' view · Shouldn't apply ethics to economics
P2

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Context · Corporate responsibility
Corporations aren't inherently moral/immoral. Instead, corporate responsibility is made up of employees' individual responsibilities.
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Context · Corporate structure
CEO has obligation toward corporation's owners
P3

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Economists' view · One responsibility of CEO: maximize profits
Meets CEO's obligation to owners and also serves public good
P4

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Author's criticism · Economists are wrong
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Premise · Maximizing profits doesn't always serve public good
E.g.: maximizing profits for paper mill can harm public good
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Premise · Public good outweighs obligation to maximize profits
CEO should serve public good even when it's not in owners' interest
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Show answer
21.

The primary purpose of the ███████ ██ ██

a

illustrate a paradox

Unsupported. A paradox is a self-contradictory or self-conflicting scenario. The author doesn’t present any such scenario. He simply presents a position held by some economists and then counters that position by showing how one of the central claims of the economists may not always be true (namely, maximizing profit doesn’t always serve the public good) and proposing that CEOs have a moral obligation that overrides their obligation to owners.

6%
b

argue for legal ██████

Unsupported. The author doesn’t propose any kind of reform.

1%
c

refute a claim

The author refutes the economists' claim that a CEO should only seek to benefit a corporation's owners. According to the author, CEOs have a separate and overriding moral obligation toward the public good.

91%
d

explain a decision

Unsupported. The author argues for what CEOs should consider when making decisions (they should consider the public good), but he doesn’t try to explain any particular decision.

1%
e

define a concept

The author does this, but it's not his primary purpose. He defines the concept of corporate responsibility, but only in order to lay the groundwork for a debate over what kinds of responsibilities corporations and their CEOs have.

1%

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