Q2 - Javier: Government workers are paid

[Laura Damone]

Question Type:
ID the Disagreement

Stimulus Breakdown:
Javier: Government workers make a higher hourly wage than comparable employees in private firms. So, the government could save money by hiring private contractors to do the work government employees currently do.
Mykayla: Analyzing government contracts showed that, on average, hiring private contractors was more costly than having government employees perform comparable tasks.

Answer Anticipation:
Javier says the government could save money by hiring contractors, but Mykayla reports that the numbers don't align with that prediction.

Correct answer:
B

Answer choice analysis:
(A) A sounds good until it mentions the payroll. Reducing the number of folks on the payroll isn't quite what these arguments are about.

(B) If you rephrased this as a question and posed it to Javier in an interview, he would say "yes." Mykayla, on the other hand, would say "no." That makes this the correct answer.

(C) Javier states this, but Mykayla doesn't refute it.

(D) Neither speaker explicitly agrees or disagrees with this.

(E) Neither speaker even addresses this!

Takeaway/Pattern:
Treat each answer like an interview question and interview the speakers. Find an answer about which one speaker agrees and the other disagrees. If either party hasn't explicitly addressed the matter, the answer is wrong.

#officialexplanation

[ReginaP412]

Hi, thanks for the break down. I'm having trouble grasping why it's B vs. C.

Mykayla doesn't outright say anything about 'saving money' -- she refutes the J's premise siting data that says contractors are paid higher than government employees (the opposite of J's statement "Government workers are paid higher hourly wages").

To me, that sounds like they disagree on who makes more money contractors vs. government employees not whether or not the government would save money, though I see how that could be an inference.

Is C thrown out because of the word 'generally' -- since Mykayla isn't referring to what happens generally, but rather in a specific instance?

Thanks in advance!

[Laura Damone]

Hi!

Javier states C almost word for word. You're right to point to "generally" as a difference, and I agree that it's a potential red flag. But Javier says that this comparison is true all the time: "Government workers are paid higher hourly wages than comparable private sector employees." So can we infer he agrees that this is true generally? Absolutely. "Generally" is not a fatal flaw in C.

But take a closer look at Mykayla's statements. Mykayla cites a study that "showed that, on average, the government paid substantially more to hire contractors than it would have cost for government employees to perform comparable services." Note that she's not actually disputing who makes more money. She's actually disputing whether the cost of the job is greater when performed by private contractors vs. government employees.

In other words, she's not saying individual private sector employees earn more. She's saying that jobs performed by private contractors cost more.
In saying those jobs cost more, she's disputing Javier's claim that the government would save money by hiring contractors to perform services now performed by government employees. I would call this an explicit address of the matter of "saving money" even though she doesn't use that exact term.

Hope this helps!