Q26 - Rapid population growth can

[bnuvincent]

I could not see why E strengthen the argument, could you please explain?

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

As with most strengthening and weakening questions the key here is to focus on the conclusion.

The conclusion is that "Rapid population growth can be disastrous for a small city." This argument specifically is dealing with population growth overloading city services. So, I'd like an answer that suggests why population growth can cause all these problems for providing city services.

(A) says where cities spend their money when they have a budget shortage. But doesn't tell us what leads to a budget shortage, which is what we're looking for.
(B) is irrelevant. "New ideas" does not equate to problems.
(C) simply slows down the process by which "many" small cities can absorb new residents. Remember "many" = "some." But this doesn't tell us that there are problems associated with absorbing new residents, just about the rate.
(D) tells us why people move. They're moving to good areas. This undermines the conclusion that absorbing new residents leads to problems for the city in providing services.
(E) strengthens the conclusion that there will be problems with providing services. If the new residents do not pay taxes until the following year, then the city will need to provide services for everyone (including the new residents) with only enough finances to pay for last years residents.


I can see why several of these answer choices would be tempting, particularly (B) and (C). They seem to be on topic, and maybe with some additional assumptions they might be construed to strengthen, but as is, they don't.

Let me know if you'd like some further explanation here! Glad to help...

[bnuvincent]

Oh, then the strengthen here is not strong though, when I found the stimulus talk about most city budgets do not allow for the immediate hiring of new staff, I suspected that it is about money, but E seems not to refer to the relationship very explict.
Anyway it is the best one we can choose.

[shirando21]

As with most strengthening and weakening questions the key here is to focus on the conclusion.

The conclusion is that "Rapid population growth can be disastrous for a small city." This argument specifically is dealing with population growth overloading city services. So, I'd like an answer that suggests why population growth can cause all these problems for providing city services.

(A) says where cities spend their money when they have a budget shortage. But doesn't tell us what leads to a budget shortage, which is what we're looking for.
(B) is irrelevant. "New ideas" does not equate to problems.
(C) simply slows down the process by which "many" small cities can absorb new residents. Remember "many" = "some." But this doesn't tell us that there are problems associated with absorbing new residents, just about the rate.
(D) tells us why people move. They're moving to good areas. This undermines the conclusion that absorbing new residents leads to problems for the city in providing services.
(E) strengthens the conclusion that there will be problems with providing services. If the new residents do not pay taxes until the following year, then the city will need to provide services for everyone (including the new residents) with only enough finances to pay for last years residents.


I can see why several of these answer choices would be tempting, particularly (B) and (C). They seem to be on topic, and maybe with some additional assumptions they might be construed to strengthen, but as is, they don't.

Let me know if you'd like some further explanation here! Glad to help...

For A, I think the reason below better explains why we eliminate A:

We don't know if the budget is the same as before or less than or more than before. Let's say the budget is more than before. But when more and more people moved in, it is possible that the rate the budget increases is not as fast as the rate of the population growth that leads to the situation that city services responsibile for utilities and permites are overloaded. Please refere to PT21, LR1, Q10 for a similar situation.

E fits perfectly as a reason under this category. It tells you why the number of municipal employee cannot increase as fast as the growth of population. That is because the tax which will be the source of budget is not increasing as fast as the growth of the population.

I eliminated A because I don't think the argument tells me whether utilities and permites services are basic municipal services or less essential serivces. and it is irrelevant to the core of the argument. and technically the argument did not use the word "shortage", it is arguable how to define shortage of budget.

Let me know if you would agree with my analysis, Matt.