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.
Both the article and the lecturer are discussing about whether the government should require smokers to pay taxes. The reading agrees with the policy and propose three reasons to convince the reader that such policy is worth it. Nevertheless, the professor challenges the passage by providing three counter examples.
First, the passage states that imposing taxes on smokers can discourage people from getting addicted to unhealthy behavior. However, the professor disagrees by stating that the policy does not in fact lead to a healthier lifestyle. Contrarily, she mentions that if such policy is enacted, people who were already addicted to cigarettes would definitely buy cheaper ones. Consequently, since most inexpensive cigarette contain more baneful chemicals than costly ones, such decision might instead lead them to an unhealthy body. Moreover, generally speaking, imposing taxes will make people prone to spend more money on cheaper yet unhealthy food and less on wholesome food. Eventually, people might not lead a healthy life if such taxation exists.
Secondly, the reading maintains that tax of all kind are financially fair. Nonetheless, the lecturer counters the reading by arguing that most tax policies do not take people's economical condition into consideration. For instance, smokers from a rich family and a poor family both need to pay similar amount of taxes if their smoking condition is similar. However, affluent families can pay for the tax more easier than people from impoverished families. In other words, the policy might put a lot of burden on cigarette addicts who come from a poor family. Therefore, the processor argues that such policy is not as fair as most people think.
Finally, the reading passage suggests that the high rate of taxation provides revenue for the government. Unfortunately, the professor mentions that the million dollars of revenue will make the government forget about the original meaning of the taxation policy. In other words, the government might be dependent on the revenue and establishes new policies that violates the original intention. For example, the government might not prohibit smoking in all outdoor activities because they fear of losing the income.
In conclusion, the lecturer disagrees with the passage by stating that the tax policy might not work as intended.
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Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 404, Rule ID: MOST_COMPARATIVE[2]
Message: Use only 'easier' (without 'more') when you use the comparative.
Suggestion: easier
..., affluent families can pay for the tax more easier than people from impoverished families....
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
consequently, finally, first, however, if, moreover, nevertheless, nonetheless, second, secondly, so, therefore, for example, for instance, in conclusion, in fact, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 8.0 10.4613686534 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 5.04856512141 257% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 16.0 22.412803532 71% => OK
Preposition: 39.0 30.3222958057 129% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 5.01324503311 259% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1989.0 1373.03311258 145% => OK
No of words: 367.0 270.72406181 136% => OK
Chars per words: 5.41961852861 5.08290768461 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.37689890912 4.04702891845 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7081480545 2.5805825403 105% => OK
Unique words: 193.0 145.348785872 133% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.525885558583 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 616.5 419.366225166 147% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.23620309051 158% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 13.0662251656 153% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 24.4987754796 49.2860985944 50% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 99.45 110.228320801 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.35 21.698381199 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.9 7.06452816374 126% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 4.45695364238 292% => 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: 0.278575911079 0.272083759551 102% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0749216281942 0.0996497079465 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0527376875161 0.0662205650399 80% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.131687395238 0.162205337803 81% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0674308590472 0.0443174109184 152% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.3 13.3589403974 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 44.75 53.8541721854 83% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.16 12.2367328918 116% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.87 8.42419426049 105% => OK
difficult_words: 101.0 63.6247240618 159% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => 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.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 404, Rule ID: MOST_COMPARATIVE[2]
Message: Use only 'easier' (without 'more') when you use the comparative.
Suggestion: easier
..., affluent families can pay for the tax more easier than people from impoverished families....
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
consequently, finally, first, however, if, moreover, nevertheless, nonetheless, second, secondly, so, therefore, for example, for instance, in conclusion, in fact, in other words
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 8.0 10.4613686534 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 13.0 5.04856512141 257% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 16.0 22.412803532 71% => OK
Preposition: 39.0 30.3222958057 129% => OK
Nominalization: 13.0 5.01324503311 259% => Less nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1989.0 1373.03311258 145% => OK
No of words: 367.0 270.72406181 136% => OK
Chars per words: 5.41961852861 5.08290768461 107% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.37689890912 4.04702891845 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7081480545 2.5805825403 105% => OK
Unique words: 193.0 145.348785872 133% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.525885558583 0.540411800872 97% => OK
syllable_count: 616.5 419.366225166 147% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 13.0 8.23620309051 158% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 20.0 13.0662251656 153% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 24.4987754796 49.2860985944 50% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 99.45 110.228320801 90% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.35 21.698381199 85% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.9 7.06452816374 126% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 4.45695364238 292% => 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: 0.278575911079 0.272083759551 102% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0749216281942 0.0996497079465 75% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0527376875161 0.0662205650399 80% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.131687395238 0.162205337803 81% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0674308590472 0.0443174109184 152% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.3 13.3589403974 100% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 44.75 53.8541721854 83% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.16 12.2367328918 116% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.87 8.42419426049 105% => OK
difficult_words: 101.0 63.6247240618 159% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => 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.