Self-study
Support In a business whose owners and employees all belong to one family, the employees can be paid exceptionally low wages. ██████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████ ████████ █████████ ██████ ███████ ███████ ██ █ ██████ ████████ ██ █ ████████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that a family business is a family’s surest road to financial prosperity. This is based on the fact that in a business whose owners and employees are all part of a family, the employees can be paid exceptionally low wages. This allow general operating expenses to be lower than they would be for non-family business, which makes profits higher.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author overlooks the possibility that paying family members exceptionally low wages is something that might undermine a family’s financial prosperity. Although profits might be higher for the family, if family members get lower wages, that might counteract the higher profits and leave the family in no better an economic position.
17.
The reasoning in the argument ██ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████
a
ignores the fact ████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ███ █████ ██████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████ █████
The author never assumed that businesses that pay high wages can’t be profitable. His position is simply that paying exceptionally low wages can help a business become more profitable than it otherwise would be.
b
presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████ █████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ███████
This is too extreme. The author does assume that paying low wages leads to lower expenses and higher profits, but that doesn’t mean the business that pays the “lowest” wages has the “lowest” expenses or the “highest” profits.
c
ignores the fact ████ ██ █ ██████ █████████ ██████ ██████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ████████ ██████████
The author overlooks the fact that paying family members exceptionally low wages might reduce family prosperity, which might cancel out whatever extra profits can be gained in a family business. The overall $ brought in might not be higher if you pay family low wages.
d
presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ███ █████ ██ █ ██████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ ██████████
The author doesn’t make any assumptions about employees’ intentions. Maybe they are willing to work for low wages because otherwise they’ll be punished by their parents? The author doesn’t have to think they want to make money for the family.
e
presumes, without providing ██████████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███████ █████████ ████████ ███ ███████
The author doesn’t take a position on whether only businesses with low general operating expenses can succeed. Maybe other kinds of businesses can succeed, too, but just not as easily or as much.