Self-study
Economist: Support In free market systems, the primary responsibility of corporate executives is to determine a nation's industrial technology, the pattern of work organization, location of industry, and resource allocation. ████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ███████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████ ██ ██ ██ ████████ ███ ██ ████ ███████████ ██ ██████ █ █████ ████████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ███████████ █████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██████████
Summarize Argument
The economist concludes that business executives have become public officials. She supports this by saying that business executives are responsible for key decisions like industrial technology, work organization, industry location, and resource allocation. They also decide what and how much to produce, although consumers have some influence.
Notable Assumptions
In order for business executives to be considered public officials, the economist must assume that the “large category of major decisions” that they are responsible for is sufficient for making someone a public official. In other words, she must assume that, just because business executives make these decisions, they are public officials.
10.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████
a
Most of the █████████ ████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████ █████████ ███████ ██████████
The economist’s argument only addresses business executives in free market systems. So the decision-making in countries with centrally planned economies is not relevant.
b
Making decisions about ████████ ██ ████ █████████████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ████ ██ █ ██████ ██████████ ████
This weakens the economist’s argument by pointing out her key assumption. She assumes that making the decisions mentioned is a sufficient reason to call someone a public official. But if these decisions aren’t the core of a public official’s job, her argument falls apart.
c
The salaries of ████████ ██████████ ███ ████████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████████ ██████ ██████████
It doesn’t matter that business executives and high-ranking public officials have similar salaries. We’re only concerned with the decisions made by business executives and whether those decisions make them public officials.
d
What a country ████████ ███ ██ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███████████
We already know that decisions about a country’s production, though made by business executives, are “subject to significant consumer control.” The question is whether making decisions about these things means that business executives are public officials.
e
Public officials and ████████ ██████████ █████ █████████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████████
Whether public officials and business executives work together in making decisions is irrelevant. We need to know if making these decisions is enough reason to say that business executives are public officials.