People with serious financial problems are so worried about money that they cannot be happy. █████ ██████ █████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████████ ████████ ████████████████████ ██ █████ ████ ██ █████ █████████ ████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ██████
The stimulus gives us a few related claims about serious financial problems and happiness.
Claim 1: People with serious financial problems are so worried about money that they cannot be happy.
Claim 2: Their misery makes everyone close to them unhappy as well.
Claim 3: Only if their financial problems are solved can they and those around them be happy.
Claims 1 and 2 are pretty straightforward. If you have serious financial problems, you're unhappy, and the people around you are unhappy too. Here's what those claims look like in diagram form:
serious financial problems → not happy
serious financial problems → people close to you not happy
Claim 3 requires more care. The phrase "only if" introduces a necessary condition. The claim says that solving the financial problems is necessary for happiness, not that it's sufficient. In other words, you can't be happy unless the problems are solved. But solving the problems doesn't guarantee you'll be happy. Maybe you solve your financial problems but then something else makes you miserable.
happy → financial problems are solved
Notice that Claim 3 doesn't really give us new information beyond what Claims 1 and 2 already established. Claims 1 and 2 told us that serious financial problems guarantee unhappiness.
Since this is a Must Be True question, the correct answer must be guaranteed by the statements in the stimulus. We should be careful not to pick an answer that goes beyond what the stimulus actually proves. In particular, watch out for answers that treat a necessary condition as though it were sufficient. The stimulus tells us what's required for happiness, but it doesn't tell us what guarantees happiness.
Which one of the following ██████████ ███ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████
Only serious problems ████ ██████ ████████
The stimulus tells us that serious financial problems make people unhappy. But it never says that serious financial problems are the only things that make people unhappy. People could be unhappy for countless other reasons. (A) takes the stimulus's claim about one cause of unhappiness and incorrectly treats it as the only cause.
People who solve █████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████
This might be a tempting trap. It's wrong because it confuses a necessary condition with a sufficient condition. The stimulus says solving financial problems is
If you find this tricky, pay close attention to the difference between "if" and "only if." "If X, then Y" means X is sufficient for Y. "Only if X, can Y" means X is necessary for Y. The stimulus uses "only if," so solving financial problems is necessary, not sufficient.
People who do ███ ████ ███████ █████████ ████████ ████ ██ ██████
The stimulus tells us that having serious financial problems prevents happiness. But the absence of serious financial problems doesn't guarantee happiness. Just like (B), this treats the removal of one barrier to happiness as though it's enough to make someone happy. People without serious financial problems could still be unhappy for entirely different reasons. (C) is another version of confusing sufficient and necessary conditions.
If people are ████████ ████ ████ ███████ █████████ █████████
Yet another example of confusing sufficient and necessary conditions. The stimulus tells us that serious financial problems lead to unhappiness. But that doesn't mean unhappiness must always be a result of serious financial problems. People can be unhappy for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with finances. (D) treats serious financial problems as the only possible cause of unhappiness, which the stimulus never claims.
If people are ██████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ███████ █████████ █████████
This must be true based on the contrapositive of the first claim in the stimulus. We know people with serious financial problems cannot be happy. So, if someone is happy, they don't have serious financial problems. If they did have serious financial problems, they wouldn't be able to be happy in the first place.
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