CAT 2021 Question Paper | VARC Slot 2

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Question 18 : The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
The unlikely alliance of the incumbent industrialist and the distressed unemployed worker is especially powerful amid the debris of corporate bankruptcies and layoffs. In an economic downturn, the capitalist is more likely to focus on costs of the competition emanating from free markets than on the opportunities they create. And the unemployed worker will find many others in a similar condition and with anxieties similar to his, which will make it easier for them to organize together. Using the cover and the political organization provided by the distressed, the capitalist captures the political agenda.

Explanatory Answer

The main idea of the paragraph is that, in an economic downturn, the capitalist, worried about the cost of competition arising from free markets, finds that he can ally with the distressed unemployed workers and use the cover and the political organization provided by them to capture the political agenda.
Option B sums up the paragraph well.
Option A implies that it is the goal of the unemployed, too, to stifle competition in free markets. This is incorrect. Similarly, C implies the unemployed capture the political agenda along with the capitalist. That is not what the paragraph states. Option D is not in line with the main idea of the paragraph either.

The answer is 'In an economic downturn, the capitalists use the anxieties of the unemployed and their political organisation to set the political agenda to suit their economic interests.'

Choice B is the correct answer.