Columnist: Shortsighted motorists learn the hard way about the wisdom of preventive auto maintenance; such maintenance almost always pays off in the long run. Our usually shortsighted city council should be praised for using similar wisdom when they hired a long-term economic development adviser. In hiring this adviser, the council made an investment that is likely to have a big payoff in several years. Other cities in this region that have devoted resources to economic development planning have earned large returns on such an investment. Which one of the following, if true, most weakens the columnist's argument? ["The columnist's city has a much smaller population and economy than the other cities did when they began devoting resources to economic development planning.", 'Qualified economic development advisers generally demand higher salaries than many city councils are willing to spend.', "Cities that have earned large returns due to hiring economic development advisers did not earn any returns at all in the advisers' first few years of employment.", 'Even some cars that receive regular preventive maintenance break down, requiring costly repairs.']