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 passage and the lecturer both talk about the similar taxes being implemented on unhealthy foods as they are on cigarettes. The author believes that imposing taxes on unhealthy foods has several social benefits, however, the lecturer firmly opposes these benefits and attacks them saying that these taxes would be of no use. She states her reasons in the following passages.
First, the author says that taxes on cigarettes has led people to buy fewer cigarettes than they used to buy, as they would have to pay more money in the form of tax. Furthermore, the author states that imposing these taxes on unhealthy products would reduce obesity levels. In contrast, the lecturer is against this claim as when taxes are levied on cigarettes, people tend to buy cheaper, lower-quality cigarettes to save money. These bad cigarettes lead to more dangerous diseases and put people at higher risk. Similarly, more taxes on unhealthy foods would cause people to spend more money on unhealthy products and consume fewer healthier products, which would in turn lead to unhealthier people.
Second, the author goes on to say that taxes are unfair, financially, to everyone in society, as diseases lead to higher medical bills. The lecturer, conversely, states that these aren’t unfair as they don’t take into account the monthly income of an individual. If taxes are imposed, people with a lower income are burdened financially in comparison to richer individuals. She states an example of how two individuals with different incomes smoke the same number of cigarettes, the person with the higher income can easily pay the tax, but the poorer person, cannot.
Last, but not least, the author mentions that taxing unhealthier products might lead to a greater income for the government which could be used for medical assistance, building parks, and stadiums, and public education. The lecturer is not impressed by this idea and says that if the government receives millions of dollars as revenue from these taxes, they will become dependent, stop caring about the welfare of its people and no serious measure will be taken to stop public smoking in parks or open spaces. This would indirectly affect the health of many people being exposed to this deadly smoke.
- In most professions and academic fields imagination is more important than knowledge 66
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement It is better to use printed material such as books and articles to do research than it is to use the internet Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 83
- Bears TOEFL INTEGRATED 73
- As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate 83
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement Parents are the best teachers Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer 73
Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, conversely, first, furthermore, however, if, second, similarly, so, in contrast
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 10.4613686534 115% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 5.04856512141 218% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 11.0 7.30242825607 151% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 22.412803532 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 49.0 30.3222958057 162% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1898.0 1373.03311258 138% => OK
No of words: 370.0 270.72406181 137% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.12972972973 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.38581623665 4.04702891845 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.53882057938 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 194.0 145.348785872 133% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.524324324324 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 586.8 419.366225166 140% => 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: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.51434878587 264% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.4491005445 49.2860985944 121% => OK
Chars per sentence: 126.533333333 110.228320801 115% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.6666666667 21.698381199 114% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.6 7.06452816374 79% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 4.45695364238 269% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.27373068433 23% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.295377333485 0.272083759551 109% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.105483885642 0.0996497079465 106% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0741556110339 0.0662205650399 112% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.177681488888 0.162205337803 110% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0812035673793 0.0443174109184 183% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.1 13.3589403974 113% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 53.8541721854 87% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 11.0289183223 115% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.77 12.2367328918 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.5 8.42419426049 101% => OK
difficult_words: 86.0 63.6247240618 135% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, conversely, first, furthermore, however, if, second, similarly, so, in contrast
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 12.0 10.4613686534 115% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 5.04856512141 218% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 11.0 7.30242825607 151% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 22.412803532 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 49.0 30.3222958057 162% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1898.0 1373.03311258 138% => OK
No of words: 370.0 270.72406181 137% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.12972972973 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.38581623665 4.04702891845 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.53882057938 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 194.0 145.348785872 133% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.524324324324 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 586.8 419.366225166 140% => 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: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 4.0 1.51434878587 264% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 59.4491005445 49.2860985944 121% => OK
Chars per sentence: 126.533333333 110.228320801 115% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.6666666667 21.698381199 114% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.6 7.06452816374 79% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 2.0 4.33554083885 46% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 12.0 4.45695364238 269% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.27373068433 23% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.295377333485 0.272083759551 109% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.105483885642 0.0996497079465 106% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0741556110339 0.0662205650399 112% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.177681488888 0.162205337803 110% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0812035673793 0.0443174109184 183% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.1 13.3589403974 113% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 47.12 53.8541721854 87% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 11.0289183223 115% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.77 12.2367328918 104% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.5 8.42419426049 101% => OK
difficult_words: 86.0 63.6247240618 135% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
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.