CR Challenger 9

1. Economic opportunity drew many people to Alaska during the early 1980s. During this period, the state’s population grew by nearly 10 percent annually, and its economic output increased by over 200 percent. Yet during that same period, the state’s per capita income, which led the nation in 1980 at $18,300 had declined by 1986 to $17, 750, or fourth nationally (dollars adjusted for inflation).
The information in the argument above would best support which one of the following claims?

1. The wages earned by Alaskans fell during the period in question at a rate faster than the rate at which the wages of other Americans fell.

2.After inflation adjustments, no state among the nation’s top four in per capita income, other than Alaska, experienced an income decline during the period in question.

3.The standard of living for Alaskans fell dramatically and consistently during the period in question.

4. The economic opportunity that drew many to Alaska during the period in question evaporated with that decade’s rampant inflation.

5.The increase in Alaska’s population during the period in question may have been largely due to the addition of non-income earning or below-average income earning members to the population.