When a community opens a large

Answer choices

1. A

   No Impact4% picked this

   When large shopping malls are new they attract a lot of shoppers but once the novelty has worn off they usually attract fewer shoppers

   This is just saying that business at the mall declines over time, but we need a way of understanding what is offsetting the money being made in the mall. Whether the mall's business declines or stays steady, we are still seeing that you can't just add what money is made in the mall to the local economy's previous total. Something is offsetting that money, and this answer isn't telling us what.

   4%
2. B

   Opposite23% picked this

   Most of the money spent in a large shopping mall is spent by tourists who are drawn specifically by the mall and who would

   This would make it more likely that mall money is new money to the local economy. We need an answer that sounds more like the opposite of this: "most of the money being spent in a new mall is just money that would have otherwise been spent elsewhere in the local economy".

   23%
3. C

   Opposite, if Anything2% picked this

   Most of the jobs created by large shopping malls are filled by people who recently moved to the community and who would not have

   Usually when a local economy receives an influx of new workers, the economic activity of that area rises. So, this answer is making it seem like the local economy should be getting boosted -- not only is the mall making money, but the city also has new workers who will spend their mall paycheck income elsewhere in the city.

   2%
4. D

   Correct62% picked this

   Most of the money spent in a large shopping mall is money that would have been spent elsewhere in the same community

   Why this is right

   Before the mall, I would have spent $100 this weekend at various stores throughout this community. Now that the mall is built, I'm spending $100 this weekend at the mall. Does that boost the local economy? No, it's just re-allocated the same pool of money from various stores throughout the community to various stores within the large shopping mall. That type of phenomenon solves the math problem they're giving us. "If a new mall comes to town, and it does $5 million in business, then how come the local economy only increases by $1 million?" Because ... most of that $5 million of mall money is not "new" money. It's money that would have otherwise been spent elsewhere in the same community. Maybe the mall is making $5 million, but now collectively the rest of the stores outside the mall are making $4 million less than they used to (offsetting the new mall income).

   Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   62%
5. E

   No Impact11% picked this

   Most of the jobs created by the construction of a large shopping mall are temporary, and most of the permanent

   This answer might have some explanatory power when it comes to the prosperity of the people living in this community, but it doesn't do anything to solve our math problem. How come the money being made in this new mall is not purely additive to the local economy? What's offsetting it? This answer isn't giving us a clear storyline the way the correct answer does.

   11%