There is now evidence that the relaxed pace of life in small towns promotes better health and greater longevity than does the hectic pace of life in big cities. Businesses in the small town of Leeville report fewer days of sick leave taken by individual w

The writer of the argument asserts that the relaxed pace of life in small towns leads to better health and greater life span. This statement is buttressed by some evidences; however, these facts may have alternative explanations which will be given below.

First of all, we were told that business in Leeville reports that local residents take less sick days than employees who work in more populated Masonton. The author assumes that the reason is that local inhabitants are healthier than public who live in the nearby city. At the same time, the writer maintains that dwellers of Leeville are significantly older, therefore, the possibility exists that a relatively small percentage of residents of the small town is working. The majority of Leeville, perhaps, consists of senior citizens who retired and do not work or work part-time.

Furthermore, one of supposed benefits of relaxed celerity of life in the small towns is greater longevity, this claim is buttressed by the data that the average age of Leeville is strikingly higher than that on the nearby city. However, may this statistic be explained alternatively? Of course, perhaps, many of these retired persons moved to the area after retirement due to the fact that life in small towns is relatively cheaper than in big megalopolises. This factor is especially important for senior citizens because of their limited income. Therefore, the high average age of ingenuous residents should not be used as supportive evidence for this argument.

Additionally to it, we were given information that Leeville has only one physician on 1,000 dwellers. This number is five times lower than the one in Masonton. From author's prospect this inevitably implies that residents of Leeville are healthier than ones of Masonton. However, this interpretation of the data is questionable. First of all, physicians are only one kind of doctors; in fact their service may suits more for younger residents of Masonton than for elderly who live in Leeville. The seniors citizens probably need to have access to other medical specialists such as therapists. Consequently, we cannot conclude that one area has healthier inhabitants than the other one.

In conclusion, although author of the argument believes that calm pace of life in small towns leads to longer life span and health, he or she does not manage to create a sound foundation for his or her argument.