Some people have maintained that private ownership of the means of production ultimately destroys any society that sanctions it. This may be true of a less technologically advanced society that must share its economic resources to survive. But since only private ownership of the means of production permits individuals to test new technologies without the majority' s consent, a technologically advanced society will actually endanger its survival if the means of production become public property. The proposition that private ownership of the means of production ultimately destroys any society that sanctions it plays which one of the following roles in the argument above? ['It is a generalization that the argument suggests is no more applicable to less technologically advanced societies than to more technologically advanced societies.', 'It is a general hypothesis that the argument suggests is inapplicable to societies more dependent for survival upon the introduction of new technologies than upon the sharing of resources.', 'It is a contention about the consequences of an economic arrangement that the argument claims is incompatible with the needs of any society.', 'It is a generalization about societies that according to the argument is true for any society in which the majority of its citizens does not impede the introduction of new technologies.']