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 reading passage and the lecturer both talk about the policy of imposing high taxes on cigarettes and other unhealthy products. The author highlights the possible benefits of imposing this policy, while the lecturer challenges the arguments mentioned by the passage.
Firstly, according to the reading passage, increasing the taxes on cigarettes and other unhealthy products will discourage people from consuming it and leading them to a healthier behaviour. To support his argument the author mentions an example of cigarettes. Raising taxes on tobacco have lead people to buy fewer cigarettes. However, the lecturer challenges this specific argument by stating that increasing the taxes will encourage people to buy cheaper cigarettes which are much more harmful. Furthermore, people will continue buying cigarettes and at last will have less money to spend on healthier food.
Secondly, the author believes that raising the taxes will shift the financial burden from all of society to those who participate in unhealthy behaviours, as it will create extra income from them, which can be utilised to cover medical cost. However, the lecturer disputes this argument by mentioning that it will be difficult for those who have low income and participate in unhealthy behaviour as they will face difficulties in paying these taxes.
Lastly, the author puts forth the idea that increasing taxes will generate more revenue for the government, which can be used for other projects, such as building stadiums and parks. However, the lecturer thinks that extra income will prevent government from employing those policies that will permanently remove unhealthy behaviours such as stoping people from smoking in outdoors ares.
In conclusion, both the author and lecturer present their view regarding the policy, but the lecturer challenges each argument stated by the author.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, firstly, furthermore, however, if, lastly, regarding, second, secondly, so, while, in conclusion, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 4.0 10.4613686534 38% => More to be verbs wanted.
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 5.04856512141 257% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 12.0772626932 91% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 22.412803532 94% => OK
Preposition: 33.0 30.3222958057 109% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 5.01324503311 120% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1597.0 1373.03311258 116% => OK
No of words: 289.0 270.72406181 107% => OK
Chars per words: 5.52595155709 5.08290768461 109% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.12310562562 4.04702891845 102% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.66066341345 2.5805825403 103% => OK
Unique words: 149.0 145.348785872 103% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.515570934256 0.540411800872 95% => OK
syllable_count: 483.3 419.366225166 115% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 3.25607064018 0% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 52.2642856601 49.2860985944 106% => OK
Chars per sentence: 133.083333333 110.228320801 121% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.0833333333 21.698381199 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 9.75 7.06452816374 138% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => 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 : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.235316561114 0.272083759551 86% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.102590951864 0.0996497079465 103% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0967232787286 0.0662205650399 146% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.135452842119 0.162205337803 84% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0796871766197 0.0443174109184 180% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.7 13.3589403974 125% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 38.66 53.8541721854 72% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.8 11.0289183223 125% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.09 12.2367328918 123% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.87 8.42419426049 105% => OK
difficult_words: 74.0 63.6247240618 116% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.