Self-paced
Dapolito: Support The city council recently passed a rent-control ordinance. ███ █ ██████ █████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████████ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ █████████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██ ██████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ██ █████████ ████ ██ ██ ███ ███ ████ █████████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██ █████ ████████
Summary
The author concludes that the city council does not have the objective of preserving the quality and availability of local rentals. Why? Because the following:
The city council recently passed a rent-control ordinance.
A recent study shows that rent control increases the price and lowers the quality and availability of rental units.
Missing Connection
The conclusion asserts something about the city council’s purpose (objective). But the premises don’t say anything that establishes whether the city council has or doesn’t have the purpose of preserving the quality and availability of local rentals.
Even though the study shows that rent control will hurt the quality and availability of rentals, there’s no evidence that the city council believed that the study was accurate or was even aware of the study. To make the argument valid, we want to establish that the passage of the rent-control ordinance, in light of the recent study, allows us infer the council knew the rent-control ordinance would harm the quality/availability of local rentals.
18.
Dapolito's conclusion follows logically if █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
The recent study ██ █████ ████████████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ██████████████
(A) helps establish the reliability of the study. But it doesn’t establish that the city council knew about the study’s results or believed its findings. So it doesn’t establish anything about the city council’s objectives.
b
Rent control is ███ ██ ███████████ █████ ███ █████████████ ██ ███ ████ ████████
What is or is not appropriate for the city council to consider does not establish anything about the city council’s objectives.
c
The members of ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ███ ███████ ███████████ █████ ████ ████████
(C) establishes that the people who voted for the ordinance were aware of and agreed with the study’s conclusions. That establishes that the council’s objective was not to preserve the quality and availability of local rentals. After all, they knew that the ordinance would decrease the quality/availability of rentals, yet still passed it.
d
Some members of ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ████████
The fact some members will profit from rent control does not establish that they voted to pass rent control for self-interested reasons. These members might have thought the rent control would increase the quality and availability of rentals.
e
The city council █████████ ████ ██ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ ███████
The fact the council sometimes acts in an arbitrary/irrational manner doesn’t establish that with respect to this ordiance, it acted in an arbitrary/irrational manner.