Logical Reasoning

PT14 · S2 · Q11 Unless they are used as

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Unless they are used as strictly temporary measures, rent-control ordinances (municipal regulations placing limits on rent increases) have several negative effects for renters.

Premise

Unless rent controls are strictly temporary, they have several negative effects, including bringing about a shortage of rental units (a long-term effect).

Premise

The advantage of rent control (smaller rent increases) is immediate; the shortage is long-term.

Premise

In municipalities where renters have a secure hold on political power and can enact or repeal rent control, those renters are invariably guided by short-term gain.

Anticipate

Combining: in those tenant-controlled municipalities, the short-term mindset means rent control will be enacted (or kept) for the immediate benefit, regardless of long-term cost. So those municipalities will have rent control for non-temporary periods, which means they'll experience the long-term shortage. Therefore, in many municipalities, there will be a shortage now or eventually.

Goal

Find an answer establishing that many municipalities will face a rental shortage.

11.

If the statements above are true, which one of the following can be properly inferred from them?

It is impossible for landlords
Too Strong
"Impossible" is much too strong. The stimulus says rent control places limits on rent increases, not that it stops landlords from raising rent at all. Smaller increases still happen.
4% picked this
In many municipalities rent-control ordinances
Unsupported
The stimulus says tenants in those municipalities are guided by short-term gain. Repealing rent control once a shortage hits would be a long-term decision, not a short-term one. There's no support for the idea that municipalities repeal rent control as soon as shortages arise — if anything, the short-term mindset suggests the opposite.
11% picked this
The only negative effect of
Too Strong
The stimulus says "several negative effects" of rent control, with shortages being just one. So shortages are not the only negative effect. This answer contradicts the stimulus.
3% picked this
Correct
In many municipalities there is
Why this is right
This is what we can derive. In tenant-controlled municipalities, the short-term mindset means rent control gets enacted (or maintained) on a non-temporary basis. Non-temporary rent control causes long-term shortages. So those municipalities will, sooner or later, face a shortage of rental units. Since those municipalities are described as "many" (in all those where tenants control politics), this conclusion follows.
Skill tested: Must be True · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
63% picked this
In the long term, a
Unsupported
The stimulus says rent control causes shortages and limits rent increases — but it doesn't say shortages will raise rents substantially in the long term. The stimulus describes negative effects without specifying that the long-term outcome is high rents.
19% picked this

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