Workers in the small town of Leeville take fewer sick days than workers in the large city of Masonton 50 miles away Moreover relative to population size the diagnosis of stress related illness is proportionally much lower in Leeville than in Masonton Acco

The writer of the argument asserts that due to relaxed pace of life in Leeville town's workers take less sick days and less frequenly diagnosed stress-related ailments. This conclusion is buttressed by evidence which may have alternative explanations.

First of all, we are told that employees of Leeville take fever sick days than workers in the city of Masonton which is located nearby. However, does it mean that residents of Leeville healthier than ones of Masonton? Perhaps many of small town residents are senior citizens or unemployed people who have no need to take sick days. Moreover, even if we assume that majority of Leeville have jobs perhaps they may avoid taking sick days because of their personal reasons, for instance, they may not be paid for these days. In other words, the fewer number of sick days does not mean that dwellers of Leeville are healthier than Masonton’s ones.

The second evidence is that percentage of population which have diagnosis of stress-related illness is higher in Masonton. At the same time, it is not mean that number of diagnosed diseases is equal to number of people having it. Perhaps Leeville has a small number of doctors who are not prone to diagnose this kind of disease. Moreover, Leeville dwellers may struggle to meet their doctors due to the relative small number of doctors available. On the contrary, Masonton may have a plethora of doctors who are incentivized by insurance of pharmaceutical companies to diagnose stress-related illness. Consequently, it is possible that Leeville life is stressful as life in Masonton is.

Finally, the Leeville Chamber of Commerce attributes these facts to that life in Leeville is slower and more relaxed and thus local residents benefit from it. Unfortunately, this arguer's statement is not supported. In fact, even if we accept evidence listed above for granted, perhaps they are rather connected with better environment conditions and ecological situation than with relaxed pace. Moreover, the small town may actively promote healthy life-style and participation to sport activities. If town's advertising campaign of healthy life is successful, it may explain the statistical data easily. Therefore, the role of relaxed life-pace in the town's success is dubious.

In conclusion, the argument claims that owing to the fact that Leeville has slower and more relaxed celerity of life its residents have health benefits; however, our analysis has demonstrated that given evidences may be explained alternatively and thus role of the Leeville' life pace is not conspicuous.