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 ccontends that the policy of imposing high taxes on cigarettes and other unhealthy products has a number of social benefits, and presents several evidences that seem to uphold the claim. However, the lecture disagrees with the reading passage and claims that such policy wouldn't neccessarily lead to healthier behavior. The points presented in the lecture will be elaborated in more detail below.
First of all, the lecture disapproves the reading passage, which asserts that taxes would discourage people from indulging in unhealthy behaviors, by maintaining that putting high taxes on cigarettes would cause people to choose cheaper and lower quality cigarettes than before. These cigarettes may have multiple harmful chemical components which can actually increase health risks. This is also applicable to unhealthy foods. Having high taxes on unhealthy food causes people to choose much unhealthier food because relatively healthier food has become more expensive than before.
Secondly, while the reading passage claims that taxes of this kind are financially fair, the lecture counterpoints this by mentioning that while it may seem fair to some people, it is considered unfair to others. The reason to why they believe in such way is because this type of taxes do not take into account various people's incomes. While high taxes wouldn't be much of a burden to people who have high income, it would provide greater pressure to those who have low income, making such policy unfair.
Last but not least, the reading passage asserts that the high rate of taxation on cigarettes significantly increases revenue for the government. However, the lecture refutes this point by commenting that the government receives millions of dollars as an income through these taxes. This would make them become independent to the tax income and would not make laws anymore that inhibit people from using cigarettes. As an example, the government is simply banning people from smoking in outdoor public places instead of banning them from smoking in all places outdoors, because they do not want to lose the income.
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 292, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: wouldn't
...ing passage and claims that such policy wouldnt neccessarily lead to healthier behavior...
^^^^^^^
Line 3, column 353, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: wouldn't
...rious peoples incomes. While high taxes wouldnt be much of a burden to people who have ...
^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, but, first, however, if, may, second, secondly, so, while, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 7.0 10.4613686534 67% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 9.0 5.04856512141 178% => OK
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 14.0 12.0772626932 116% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 44.0 30.3222958057 145% => OK
Nominalization: 4.0 5.01324503311 80% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1787.0 1373.03311258 130% => OK
No of words: 337.0 270.72406181 124% => OK
Chars per words: 5.30267062315 5.08290768461 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.28457229495 4.04702891845 106% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.54260597817 2.5805825403 99% => OK
Unique words: 179.0 145.348785872 123% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.53115727003 0.540411800872 98% => OK
syllable_count: 552.6 419.366225166 132% => 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: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 1.25165562914 320% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 14.0 13.0662251656 107% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 57.7413302972 49.2860985944 117% => OK
Chars per sentence: 127.642857143 110.228320801 116% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.0714285714 21.698381199 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.21428571429 7.06452816374 88% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 7.0 4.45695364238 157% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.302831996898 0.272083759551 111% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.103764541921 0.0996497079465 104% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.100755213446 0.0662205650399 152% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.186561163892 0.162205337803 115% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0836186682211 0.0443174109184 189% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.6 13.3589403974 117% => 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: 13.76 12.2367328918 112% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.9 8.42419426049 106% => OK
difficult_words: 87.0 63.6247240618 137% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
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.