Logical reasoning PrepTest 120 · Section 1 · Question 20

Incorrect. Even if governments that don't subsidize high-quality day care take an interest in the well-being of children, such subsidies could still be something that a government should do.

Incorrect. The stimulus establishes that governments should do "all that it can" to help out kids—even if that means taking resources away from adults. Therefore, it doesn't need to be assumed that such a decrease in resources wouldn't happen.

Incorrect. The stimulus places no such limitation on the recommendation. Even the children of parents who can afford high-quality day care might benefit from it being subsidized by the government.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen with Necessary Premise

Stimulus Summary:
A government should do everything it can to help out kids. High-quality daycare will be available if and only if the government subsidizes it, so the government should subsidize it.

Answer Anticipation:
This argument concludes a recommendation—the government "should" subsidize high-quality daycare.

As we just saw in the last question, a conclusion with a recommendation needs the criteria established by which such a decision would be made. Here, unlike the last question, that criteria is established—the government should do everything it can to help out kids.

So a conclusion that the government should do something could be justified if it's established that the action will help kids. Here, the recommended action is that the government should subsidize high-quality day care. While you may believe that that clearly benefits children, such an assumption can't be made. Since the argument doesn't establish it, it's an assumption of the argument, and we should look for an answer that establishes it as true.

Answer Explanation:
This answer establishes that the recommended course of action meets the criterion established for that recommendation to be made. The argument establishes that governments should do everything they can to help kids. If some kids would be helped by high-quality day care, then the government should do what it can to make that happen—including subsidizing it.

Key Takeaway:
Be very careful with bringing in assumptions to the LSAT. Some of the hardest to spot are the ones that seem like they should be inherently true—such as high-quality day care improves the well-being of kids. However, judgments such as that need to be established. The shortest version is that almost anything that's not directly stated or in the definition of a word is an assumption.

Incorrect. The government doesn't have to be more efficient than private enterprise to be justified in providing a service.