PT1 S3 Q09 Fines levied against environmental accidents

chellevang

Can someone explain why answer choice D would not weaken this argument? Is it because it directly attacks the premise stated that businesses value their profits? Is saying they treat the "fines" as a business expense essentially saying they do not value their profit because they are not remedying the problem? #help

SSBM1000

Hello,

D is incorrect because it's ultimately irrelevant to the argument. Whether or not a company treats fines as an ordinary business expense doesn't change the fact that the company is still paying more in those fines than they would for the cost of the safeguards, so it doesn't weaken the argument since it doesn't give us a reason to think that the companies possibly won't install these safeguards despite the high cost of the fines. Also, for all we know these companies might consider the cost of installing the safeguards to be a business expense as well.

chellevang

Makes sense. Thank you for taking the time to explain!!