PT 70, S1, Q 23

moocow314

JY’s explanation was very helpful, but there’s one part of the question that’s been bugging me.

We’re told in the premise that people who would be “adversely affected were [the bill] to become law are very influential.”

Answer choices (B) includes “any bill that is opposed by influential people” and (C) has “those who oppose it are not very influential.” I understand and accept JY's explanations for why these are wrong and why (E) is correct, but I think there might be something else wrong with those answer choices.

A lot of the explanations I see for why B & C are wrong still seem to accept that it is the influential people who oppose the bill. However, can we really make the assumption that the influential people who would be adversely affected by the bill would oppose it?

It definitely seems like an unstated assumption in the first part of the argument, but is it really valid to say that they would oppose it (and that’s why the bill won’t be passed)?

It’s possible I’m not really understanding what “adversely affected” means. However, isn’t it possible be adversely affected by a bill, but still support it? (for example, wealthy individuals might support higher taxes for the rich, even though that adversely affects them).

It’s one the assumptions that jumped out at me when I did my BR and partly how I was able to get rid of (B) and (C). But I’ve read explanations from different sources and they all seem to accept the assumption that the influential people being adversely affected are the ones opposing the bill.

Thanks!

c.janson35

I think B and C can be eliminated because we have no information at all about who opposes the bill, if there is in fact anyone that does oppose it. All we know is that most favor it, but most can mean all. Just because influential people would be adversely affected doesn't mean that they necessarily oppose the bill. Because B and C make one of the variables in the conditional relationships the opposition of influential people, we can safely eliminate them.

moocow314

Thanks @c.janson35! That definitely makes sense. That's probably the main reason I initially eliminated B & C.

I'm pretty sure JY's video and the LSAT Hacks explanation stated that it was the influential people who opposed the bill and they provided other (equally good, I think) explanations for eliminating B & C. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't completely off base for having that additional reason for thinking those answer choices are wrong.