Sociologist: The welfare state cannot be successfully implemented because it rests on the assumption that human beings are unselfish—a seemingly false assumption.
Conclusion
The welfare state cannot be successfully implemented.
Intermediate Conclusion
It rests on the seemingly false assumption that human beings are unselfish.
Evidence
The welfare state is only feasible if wage earners are prepared to have the money they earn used to help others in greater need, which requires an unselfish attitude. But people innately seek their own well-being, especially if the interest of someone else threatens it.
Evaluate
Whenever we do Main Conclusion (and to a lesser extent Role) questions, we prime our brains before reading the paragraph with a crucial reminder:
- listen for the Conclusion to arrive before the Evidence!
In the vast majority of Main Conclusion questions, the paragraph ends with supporting ideas, not with the main conclusion. The two most common places to find the conclusion on a Main Conclusion question?
1. some sort of Rebuttal type claim (e.g. "however, they're wrong") 2. the first sentence
Because the first sentence sounds somewhat like an opinion --- bah, you'll never be able to pull off the welfare state! -- and because that opinion isn't being attributed to someone else, we start to think,
If we read the first sentence, and then ask ourselves , everything that follows sounds like the author's defense of that position.
Goal
We want to find a match for the first sentence. It's unclear to me whether they'll just give us the entire first sentence (including the because clause that is technically support for the first clause), or whether they'll just give us the first clause, which leads up to the because.
I'm fine with either. They aren't going to offer us both.