▶ Your Answer :
In the reading passage, there is ample support for the author’s claim that levying a tax on cigarette have several advantages. However, the professor in the lecture gives several reasons as a rebuttal to the author’s point. First, the professor contends that charging a tax on the tobacco cannot prevent young people from starting smoking. As the government levies a tax on cigarette, the black market have been occurred. According to a recent study, in those places, salesman does not identify buyer’s ID. So young people will buy tobacco from dealer. This casts doubt on the reading passage that young people will not smoke when the government levy a high tax on the cigarette because they do not afford it. Next, the professor insists that the government will not get additional money from charging a tax on tobacco. If the government levies a high tax on cigarette, very few people will buy it. This means that the country’s revenue will decrease with dropped sales of cigarette. This counters the reading passage’s assertion that the country can repair farmland damaged by manufacture of cigarette through removing harmful chemicals and plating trees. Finally, the professor argues that charging a tax on cigarette cannot solve the poverty. If the cigarette farmland is depressed by drop of tobacco, the farm have to restructure. As a result, workers that in charge of agriculture, manufacturing and retail in that farm will be lost their jobs. This means that charging a tax on cigarette cannot help the poor, even fostering the poverty. This refutes the reading passage’s suggestion that the government’s enough revenue from cigarette can be used for assisting the poor through welfare system. |