A very tricky problem that fooled me at first.


In Ledland, unemployed adults receive government assistance. To reduce unemployment, the government proposes to supplement the income of those who accept jobs that pay less than government assistance, thus enabling employers to hire workers cheaply. However, the supplement will not raise any worker's income above what government assistance would provide if he or she were not gainfully employed. Therefore, unemployed people will have no financial incentive to accept jobs that would entitle them to the supplement.


This is the argument of the passage:

supplemental income + low paying job income = government assistance income

Therefore, unemployed people will have no financial incentive to accept jobs that would entitle them to the supplement.

Now, let’s go to the prompt:

Which of the following, if true about Ledland, most seriously weakens the argument of the editorial?

So we need to find an answer that attacks the idea that there is no financial incentive to accept low paying jobs where they would get the supplement.

(A) The government collects no taxes on assistance it provides to unemployed individuals and their families.
This has nothing to do with the argument.

(B) Neighboring countries with laws that mandate the minimum wage an employer must pay an employee have higher unemployment rates than Ledland currently has.
It doesn’t matter what happens in neighboring countries, we only care about Leland.

(C) People who are employed and look for a new job tend to get higher-paying jobs than job seekers who are unemployed.
This looks good. So there might be a future financial incentive to get people to take jobs that, with the supplement, pay what’s equal to government assistance

(D) The yearly amount unemployed people receive from government assistance is less than the yearly income that the government defines as the poverty level.
This strengthens the argument. Why work if your below the poverty level whether you work or not.

(E) People sometimes accept jobs that pay relatively little simply because they enjoy the work
Trap answer. It sounds good but doesn’t address the argument.

So therefore, the best answer is Choice C