Q8 - Journalist: To reconcile the need for profits

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

Question Type
Strengthen (principle)

Stimulus
The argument concludes that the practice of selling a drug in rich countries at a high price while selling the same drug in poor countries at a low price is unjustified. The argument supports this position by noting that poor nations may have a middle class better able to pay higher prices than the poorerst citizens of a wealthier nation.

Answer Prephrase
The price a company charges for a drug should be dependent on an individual's ability to pay rather than the average ability to pay of the citizens in which that individual lives.

Correct Answer
(C) is correct. This answer suggests that it should be about the individual's ability to pay rather than the average ability of the citizens within the nation the individual resides.

Incorrect Answers
(A) makes the wrong comparison. The argument doesn't contrast healthy people with those who are sick, but rather poor people with those who are wealthy.

(B) is too narrow. The argument applies to all institutions, not just those that are wealthy.

(D) fails to recommend focussing on the individual's ability to pay. This answer seems to think the criticism is that wealthy nations have better access to health care, but the issue is that poor people in wealthy nations have less access than middle class people in poor nations.

(E) makes the wrong comparison. What's unfair is the unequal access to health care. Unequal distribution of wealth is out of scope.

#officialexplanation

[LSAT-Chang]

What is the difference between A and C...?

[rcomer]

Look through the stimulus -- do you see any reference to "people who are ill" or "healthy people?" Moreover, if you find a reference, are the two groups being juxtaposed? No and no, so (A) can be eliminated.

[gplaya123]

I was struggling between A and C as well but here is my 2 cent:

Well the cores is that
1) to reconcile $ and morality, adjust the price of medicine accordingly
2) WRONG
3) Because members of social class (middle or low) may be able to afford the medicine.

Conc/implication: the journalist is undermining the policy by claiming that it is not really achieving the policy's goal. Even if they are sold to a country at a certain rate, there still will be some people who wouldn't be able to get the medicine, which is contrary to the intention of the policy. And why can't they? Because the last sentence of the stimulus says that even if the low class members need them desperately, the middle class people will lower their likelihood of obtaining the medicine, for having greater financial ability to purchase them.

Thus, C qualifies/strengthens by saying that it's the people's "needs" that should be taken into consideration, not the purchasing power.

A is actually implicating that there should be a balance between healthy people and ill people. Well both policy and journalist's claim is in regards to the sick people, not healthy people. Thus, it is actually irrelevant to the argument.