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A boutique's line of scented candles has lost money in each of the past three years. On that basis, the boutique's owner has decided that the line of scented candles should be discontinued.
Which of the following principles, if valid, most helps to justify the owner's decision?
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Correct answer
E
A justifying principle must bridge the argument's premise to its conclusion: applied to the stated facts, it should yield exactly the conclusion drawn. The premise is that the scented-candle line has lost money for three consecutive years, and the conclusion is that the line should be discontinued. The principle that makes that conclusion follow is a general rule that a product line losing money three years in a row should be discontinued, which is what choice E states. Applying choice E to the facts, a line that lost money for three straight years, directly delivers the owner's decision.
The other choices do not bridge the gap. Choice A is out of scope: it concerns offering a wide variety of lines, not whether to discontinue an unprofitable one. Choice B is an off-topic popularity claim that, if anything, argues for keeping the line, so it points the opposite way. Choice C governs the converse case, lines that have been profitable, which it says to expand, so its condition never matches a money-losing line. Choice D recommends tracking profitability but stops at gathering the data; it never tells the owner what to do once a line is found to be losing money. Only choice E supplies the general rule that, applied to the premise, justifies discontinuing the line, so the answer is choice E.
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