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.

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.

The article and the lecture are both about high taxes on cigarettes and unhealthy foods. The author feels that the government should make high taxes on cigarettes and unhealthy foods. But the lecturer disputes the claims made in the article. His position is that high taxes for them are useless and maybe cause bad effects.

According to the reading. The article mentions that high taxes on cigarettes and unhealthy foods will decline their use and consumption of them. And he thinks if the government takes this policy they will get more tax revenue from the public. This argument is challenged by the lecturer. He claims that high taxes cannot help the public have good living habits and would make a negative influence. First, high taxes make cigarette and unhealthy foods more expensive which make low-income people buy low-quality cigarette and less healthy foods in their daily life. Second, these kinds of taxes will strengthen unfairness in our society. Because these taxes only influence the low-income citizens while high-income still consume cigarettes and unhealthy foods.

Besides, the author says that high taxes can increase the government’s income and support the development of stadiums or public parks, and so on. The lecturer, however, asserts that high tax revenue will lead the government to lose the motivation to ban cigarettes in public facilities and decrease the production of unhealthy foods.