Many countries require cigarette smokers to pay particularly high taxes on their purchases of cigarettes; similar taxes are being considered for unhealthy foods. The policy of imposing high taxes on cigarettes and other unhealthy products has a number of social benefits.
First of all, the taxes discourage people from indulging in unhealthy behaviors. Raising taxes on cigarettes, for instance, leads people to buy fewer of them. Smoking has declined as taxes on tobacco have risen, showing that these taxes do work to make society healthier. It can be expected that imposing similar taxes on unhealthy food and beverages would help reduce obesity rates.
Second, taxes of this kind are financially fair. When people get sick as a result of their smoking or eating unhealthy foods, they create medical costs. It is unfair that everyone in the society—including nonsmokers and people who follow a healthy diet—should contribute equally to covering these costs. Taxing people who engage in unhealthy behaviors creates extra income that can be used to cover the medical costs. In this way, some of the financial burden is shifted from all of society to just those who choose to participate in the unhealthy activities.
Finally, the high rate of taxation on cigarettes significantly increases revenue for the government. In addition to using this tax revenue on medical assistance, governments often use the revenue for other projects that benefit public welfare, such as building stadiums or creating public parks. Even basic government-supported services like public education benefit from these taxes. Thus, the taxes on cigarettes—and the proposed taxes on unhealthy foods—benefit everyone.
The article and the lecture both deal with consequences of high taxes on behaviors. Whilst the author claims that the high taxes can benefits people in three possible ways, the lecturer contradicts his arguments respectively.
First, according to the reading passage, high taxes helps people quit unhealthy behaviors, including smoking and eating unhealthy food. In contrast, the speaker disagrees this viewpoint. She argues that with the high taxes, people will turn to cheaper cigarettes with lower qualities which are more harmful. Furthermore, she adds that with higher taxes people will spend more money on unhealthy food, consequently they have less money left for healthy food.
Second, the writer states that high taxes on cigarettes and unhealthy food are more financially fair. On the other hand, the professor is doubtful that this is inaccurate. She points out that lower income people who engage in unhealthy behavior will suffer more from the high taxes than higher income ones.
Last but not least, the author posits that high taxes increases revenue for the government by providing more money on public services. However, the lecturer believes that there are flaws in this argument. She asserts that if government relies on the taxes for revenue, it will prohibit the government from enacting laws to ban smoke in public places.
As we can see, the author and the lecturer hold very different views on high taxes on cigarettes and unhealthy food.
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement The opinions of celebrities such as famous entertainers and athletes are more important to younger people than they are to older people Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 70
- Many countries require cigarette smokers to pay particularly high taxes on their purchases of cigarettes similar taxes are being considered for unhealthy foods The policy of imposing high taxes on cigarettes and other unhealthy products has a number of so 60
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement It is important to know about events happening around the world even if it is unlikely that they will affect your daily life Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 60
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement In the past young people depended too much on their parents to make decisions for them today young people are better able to make decisions about their own lives Use specific reasons and examples to su 60
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement Because modern life is very complex it is essential for young people to have the ability to plan and organize Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 80
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, consequently, first, furthermore, however, if, second, so, in contrast, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 5.0 10.4613686534 48% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 20.0 22.412803532 89% => OK
Preposition: 25.0 30.3222958057 82% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1240.0 1373.03311258 90% => OK
No of words: 235.0 270.72406181 87% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.27659574468 5.08290768461 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.91531732006 4.04702891845 97% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.48808477888 2.5805825403 96% => OK
Unique words: 130.0 145.348785872 89% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.553191489362 0.540411800872 102% => OK
syllable_count: 365.4 419.366225166 87% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 32.0724032971 49.2860985944 65% => OK
Chars per sentence: 95.3846153846 110.228320801 87% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.0769230769 21.698381199 83% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.23076923077 7.06452816374 102% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 1.0 4.33554083885 23% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 10.0 4.45695364238 224% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 2.0 4.27373068433 47% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.340514501938 0.272083759551 125% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.13146456695 0.0996497079465 132% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0984827993101 0.0662205650399 149% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.214977080976 0.162205337803 133% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0658755340243 0.0443174109184 149% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.5 13.3589403974 94% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 53.8541721854 99% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.05 12.2367328918 107% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.16 8.42419426049 97% => OK
difficult_words: 54.0 63.6247240618 85% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 70.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 21.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.