Contrary to the Statements of Labour Leaders, the Central Economic Problem GMAT Critical Reasoning

Question: Contrary to the statements of labor leaders, the central economic problem facing America today is not the distribution of wealth. It is productivity. With the productivity of U.S. industry stagnant, or even declining slightly, the economic pie is no longer growing. Labor leaders, of course, point to what they consider an unfair distribution of the slices of pie to justify their demands for further increases in wages and benefits. And in the past, when the pie was still growing, management could afford to acquiesce. No longer. Until productivity resumes its growth, there can be no justification for further increases in the compensation of workers.

Which of the following statements by a labor leader focuses on the logical weakness in the argument above?

(A) Although the economic pie is no longer growing, the portion of the pie allocated to American workers remains unjustly small.
(B) If management fails to accommodate the demands of workers, labor leaders will be forced to call strikes that will cripple the operation of industry.
(C) Although productivity is stagnant, the U.S. population is growing, so that the absolute size of the economic pie continues to grow as well.
(D) As a labor leader, I can be concerned only with the needs of working people, not with the problems faced by management.
(E) The stagnation of U.S. industry has been caused largely by factors—such as foreign competition—beyond the control of American workers.

“Contrary to the statements of labour leaders, the central economic problem facing America today”- is a GMAT critical reasoning topic. This GMAT critical comes with five options and candidates need to choose the one which is correct. GMAT critical reasoning tests the logical and analytical skills of the candidates. To answer the question, a candidate can either find a piece of evidence that would weaken the argument or have logical flaws in the argument. Candidates get 65 minutes to answer 36 MCQ questions in the critical reasoning section of the GMAT.

Answer: A
Explanation: B is the incorrect answer. It doesn't concentrate on the argument's logical flaws. In the event that requests are not satisfied, it issues severe threats. The premise of the argument in option C, which claims that the economic pie is not expanding, must be assumed to be accurate. Therefore, this does not constitute a logical flaw in the argument. Calling someone a liar is not the same as pointing out a flaw in logic in their argument. There is no logical flaw in the management's case for Option D. Saying that your problem is not my problem in answer. Option E reveals the reason for the problems being faced by the economy. It doesn't say what the logical flaw of the argument is. It can certainly be the labour leaders' argument. Even if the pie is not growing, the problem is the unjust distribution of current pie. The redistribution of pie is required even if the pie is not expanding. We note that the argument only discusses the size of the economic pie as a whole. Nevertheless, regardless of the overall amount, the salary distribution can be insufficient. This is not taken into account in the argument, which instead concentrates on discussing the total economic pie as a whole. This does not address the problem of DISTRIBUTION, which is just the ratio of each ingredient and irrespective of overall size. It's possible that's what the labour leaders are saying. The issue is the unfair allocation of the existing pie, even if the pie is not expanding. Even if the pie isn't growing, it needs to be redistributed. Hence A is the correct option.

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