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Can someone please explain why (A) is correct, and (D) is wrong?

Here's my reasoning with (A) and (D)

We can conclude from the stimulus that in order to sustain the level of wages, the number of people in the workforce should remain at most the same. We know that famine reduced the workforce by half. In order to sustain previous levels of wages new people should join the labor force.

(A) From the stimulus we know that the population already dropped by half. Thanks to the reduction in mortality rate the number of people will not grow. So at best, the situation will remain the same (i.e., there will be less people than before the famine broke out).

(D) As far as I know, very young children used to be a regular part of workforce around the world (including US) and, in fact, still are in some countries. So how come that high birth rates did not have an impact on the number of people in labor force? Young children could have joined the workforce and thus helped to offset the decrease caused by famine.

Please explain.

Thank you.

nonameee wrote:Can someone please explain why (A) is correct, and (D) is wrong?

Here's my reasoning with (A) and (D)

We can conclude from the stimulus that in order to sustain the level of wages, the number of people in the workforce should remain at most the same. We know that famine reduced the workforce by half. In order to sustain previous levels of wages new people should join the labor force.

(A) From the stimulus we know that the population already dropped by half. Thanks to the reduction in mortality rate the number of people will not grow. So at best, the situation will remain the same (i.e., there will be less people than before the famine broke out).

(D) As far as I know, very young children used to be a regular part of workforce around the world (including US) and, in fact, still are in some countries. So how come that high birth rates did not have an impact on the number of people in labor force? Young children could have joined the workforce and thus helped to offset the decrease caused by famine.

Please explain.

Thank you.

I think you more or less explained it? It was an Except question... ^_^

Well, the official answer is D, not A.