Self-study
P1
Economists have long defined prosperity in terms of monetary value, gauging a given nation's prosperity solely on the basis of the total monetary value of the goods and services produced annually. ███
Economists' perspective ·
Measure nation's prosperity based on monetary value of stuff nation produces
Critics' perspective ·
There are other values (besides money) important to prosperity
Such as qualify of life and environmental health.
Example Supporting Critics ·
Things that reduce QOL and environmental health can lead to increased monetary value
Weakening ozone layer leads to sales of hats, sunglasses, and sunscreens. Economists would measure this as increase in prosperity, when it's actually a decrease.
P2
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Risk of Economists' Perspective ·
People can try to increase monetary value but hurt QOL and environment.
In one case, a small town opposed limits on cutting down trees, because it thought limits would decrease wages and jobs.
P3
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Critics' Perspective (on town example) ·
The town loses a lot more without the limits
Without limits, their land would be damaged. This hurts something the town clearly values. Also, you can understand the value of the land in monetary terms; the town still loses more from forgoing limits on cutting trees.
P4
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Economists' rebuttal ·
Prosperity needs to be quantifiable
Critique ·
But prosperity involves non-quantifiable values
Analogizes economists' position. They're like literary critics who (mistakenly) think sales are a better measure of a book's value than the literary quality of the book.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
6.
In the passage, the author █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████
a
that hats, sunglasses, ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███ █████ █████
This is not stated in the passage. The author says
b
that environmental protection ████████ ███ █████████ ███ █████ ████████ ██ ███████████
This is not stated in the passage. In P2 and P3, the author describes one environmental protection measure— timber harvest limitations— that was protested by members of one rural community. She does not claim that environmental protection measures in general are often unpopular and rejected by communities.
c
that the value ██ █ ████████ ███████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████████
This is not stated in the passage. In P3, members of the rural community stay in their environment, even though they’d double their incomes by moving elsewhere. From this, critics conclude that the land has “substantial monetary value” to the residents. But they do not claim that the entire value of the environment can be determined from residents’ incomes. In fact, the residents themselves say that natural beauty also contributes to the value of their environment.
d
that timber harvest ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ████ █████████████ ██████
This is stated
e
that most nations ███████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████
This is not stated in the passage. The critics argue that prosperity should be measured in terms broader than monetary value, but they never claim that most nations measure their own prosperity this way.