Q23 - Taxi drivers, whose income is based

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Inference (soft must be false)

Stimulus Breakdown:
Taxi drivers decide ahead of time on how much money they want to make that day and then generally stop once they've made that amount (so busy days should be fewer hours than slow days).

Answer Anticipation:
What would go AGAINST this info? We could see a taxi driver continuing to work even after she's made her daily income target. We could see a slow day (perhaps with bigger tips) result in meeting the income target sooner than would happen on a busy day.

Correct Answer:
B

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) Seems compatible. Presumably, the taxi drivers set their daily income targets in relation to their financial needs.

(B) YES! On busy days, the taxi drivers are making more $ per hour but working FEWER hours. On slow days, they are making LESS $ per hour but working MORE hours. So they are a counterexample to this rule.

(C) It's hard to match this up with the taxi drivers. They have a variable hourly wage (depends on how many people they serve each hour) and they have freedom. We need an answer choice that basically CONTRADICTS the stimulus, and this doesn't contradict anything.

(D) "standard of living" is too out of scope for us to think we could contradict it.

(E) There's no way to compare taxi drivers (paid based on production) with workers who are paid a fixed hourly wage, since we received no info about the latter.

Takeaway/Pattern: This is an odd question stem … you can tell it's Inference from the whole "facts above support / oppose which answer" wording. The challenge in understanding B is the mathematical thinking about a taxi driver's hourly pay is higher when she's busy. But if we were just thinking, "I can only contradict an answer if it's talking about stuff we already discussed", then ideas like "financial needs" (A), "standard of living" (D), and "people paid a fixed hourly wage" (E) would be dealbreakers, and we could just consider B and C.

#officialexplanation

[jared.xu]

Could anyone please tell me why A is wrong in this problem about Taxi drivers? I see why B is correct, but A somehow seems as attractive to me. Really appreciate your help!

[timmydoeslsat]

Could anyone please tell me why A is wrong in this problem about Taxi drivers? I see why B is correct, but A somehow seems as attractive to me. Really appreciate your help!

It is important to keep in my mind what is expected of us from this question stem.

The stimulus provides the strongest evidence against which one of the 5 answer choices.

We really do not know about taxi drivers willingness to work.

We know that they set up a daily income target.

We know that, typically, the hours they work depend on how busy the day is.

I almost think, if anything, A is in agreement with the stimulus.

If it is not a busy day and their daily income target is high, you can expect a taxi driver to work more.

[irenewerwerwer]

hello timmydoeslsat, could you analyze what does (C) convey? The stimulus has specified tax drivers set their own schedule, the fact that they set their own schedule does not variate with their hourly wage. Their wage variates with how busy they are, therefore I think (C) is irrelvant.

Could you correct the thought above? Thanks in advance!

[shirando21]

Can anyone explain this question? this one is really confusing to me. I picked E.

I am not sure about what the question is asking.

please help!!!

[timmydoeslsat]

This question stem can be seen as a variant of a must be false type. We are looking for an answer choice that is at odds with our stimulus.

Our stimulus makes intuitive sense when we think about it.

You have a taxi driver. The guy sets a daily income target level. When he reaches that level, that is it --- the day is done. We'll say he sets a $200 target daily.

(1) On a busy day --- when customer after customer calls for a taxi --- he reaches that target quickly. We'll say he reaches it in 4 hours.

(2) On a slow day --- when it is raining, the Olympics are on, and there is a lack of customers on the street --- it takes him forever to hit that $200 target. We'll say it took him 10 hours.

So in these two situations, (1) had an effective hourly wage of $50 per hour, while (2) had a wage of $20 per hour.

The taxi driver stopped working after he met his target, even when he was raking it in during the busy day. He did not care that he was making a lot per hour.

Answer choice B is at odds with our stimulus. We do have evidence against this idea. We have evidence that taxi drivers do not work more when their effective hourly wage is higher.

The rest of the answer choices either are consistent with the evidence in the stimulus or we do not have this stimulus have evidence go against the idea.

[Charlie]

I wanna ask about C...

I think what C says is contradicted to the stimulus. I mean according to the stimulus workers here will not accept a lower hourly wage in exchange for the freedom to set their own schedules. They will accept it and work until reaching the income target instead, won't they?

[gaheexlee]

I wanna ask about C...

I think what C says is contradicted to the stimulus. I mean according to the stimulus workers here will not accept a lower hourly wage in exchange for the freedom to set their own schedules. They will accept it and work until reaching the income target instead, won't they?

I'll try my hand in clarifying!

The easy way to look at this is to focus on the conclusion, and thus, scope.

Conclusion is: Taxi drivers will work fewer hours on busy days than on slow days.

The conclusion basically wants to know if there is an inverse relationship between the number of hours worked and how busy drivers are. Essentially, does the busyness affect the number of hours the driver clocks in? The subject at hand is 'willingness.'

Answer choice (C) on the other hand, is talking about 'acceptance.' Whether or not the drivers accept a lower hourly wage is irrelevant to their willingness to work certain hours on busy versus non busy days. For instance, I can dislike and reject my hourly wage of $5 as a waitress but still try to serve as many customers as I can when the restaurant is busy so I can amass my targeted amount quicker.

(C) thus unnecessarily broadens the scope while the correct answer, (B) stays within the scope and shows that there is not an inverse relationship, thus weakening the stimulus.

Hope that made sense

[Charlie]

I wanna ask about C...

I think what C says is contradicted to the stimulus. I mean according to the stimulus workers here will not accept a lower hourly wage in exchange for the freedom to set their own schedules. They will accept it and work until reaching the income target instead, won't they?

I'll try my hand in clarifying!

The easy way to look at this is to focus on the conclusion, and thus, scope.

Conclusion is: Taxi drivers will work fewer hours on busy days than on slow days.

The conclusion basically wants to know if there is an inverse relationship between the number of hours worked and how busy drivers are. Essentially, does the busyness affect the number of hours the driver clocks in? The subject at hand is 'willingness.'

Answer choice (C) on the other hand, is talking about 'acceptance.' Whether or not the drivers accept a lower hourly wage is irrelevant to their willingness to work certain hours on busy versus non busy days. For instance, I can dislike and reject my hourly wage of $5 as a waitress but still try to serve as many customers as I can when the restaurant is busy so I can amass my targeted amount quicker.

(C) thus unnecessarily broadens the scope while the correct answer, (B) stays within the scope and shows that there is not an inverse relationship, thus weakening the stimulus.

Hope that made sense

I get it. I think that makes sense! Thank you!

[andrew.penry]

Read the stem wrong

[tommywallach]

Always the worst! Oh well.