PT108.S1.P3.Q17 > Analytics

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Many people complain about corporations, but there are also those whose criticism goes further and who hold corporations morally to blame for many of the problems in Western society. █████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ ██████ █████████ █████ ██ ████ ████ ████████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ███

Some people's view · Corporations are immoral when they ignore their impacts on the public good

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Economists' view · Shouldn't apply ethics to economics

Context · Corporate responsibility

Corporations aren't inherently moral/immoral. Instead, corporate responsibility is made up of employees' individual responsibilities.

Context · Corporate structure

CEO has obligation toward corporation's owners

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Economists' view · One responsibility of CEO: maximize profits

Meets CEO's obligation to owners and also serves public good

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Author's criticism · Economists are wrong

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Premise · Maximizing profits doesn't always serve public good

E.g.: maximizing profits for paper mill can harm public good

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Premise · Public good outweighs obligation to maximize profits

CEO should serve public good even when it's not in owners' interest

Passage Style

Critique or debate

17.

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████

Question Type

Main point

The main point of this Debate passage is to present and counter the position of some economists. The economists' view is that a CEO’s sole obligation is to protect the interests of a corporation’s owners. The author counters that while this obligation exists, CEOs have a greater moral responsibility to protect the public good.

Although CEOs may ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ████████ █████ █████████████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██████████████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ █████████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████ █████

The author acknowledges the economists’ view that CEOs generally have an obligation to maximize profits, but adds that while this obligation exists, CEOs have a greater responsibility to protect the public good.

79%

Although morality is ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ██ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ███ ████████

Two problems. First, the author never suggests that morality is “not easily ascribed” to nonhuman entities like corporations. He just notes that corporate responsibility is made up of individual responsibilities. Second, (B) ignores the author’s core argument about what it means for an individual or corporation to act morally: it means considering the public good, and serving the public good isn’t always met by maximizing profit.

11%

Although economists argue ████ ██████████ █ █████████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ███████ █ █████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ██ ████ █ ██████ ███ ███ █████████████ ███████

Wrong viewpoint. This is all the economists' view. The author, meanwhile, disagrees that a CEO's highest obligation is to seek a profit for the corporation's owners.

Although some people █████████ ████████████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██████████ ██████████ █████ ████ ████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███████ ██████████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ██████████

This is just a summary of the first paragraph, and it ignores the author’s view, which is that the economists are wrong and corporations (and their CEOs) do have ethical responsibilities.

Although critics of ████████████ █████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ██████ █████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███████

Anti-supported. The author states that when CEOs make financial decisions that prioritize maximizing profits, the results don’t always benefit the public.

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PrepTest 108 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 17

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PrepTest 108 - Section 1 - Passage 3 - Question 17

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