▶ Your Answer :
Some people think that unhealthy foods should be taxed. Others think that it should be treated as same as other good foods. The issue is a controversial one, but in my opinion, a close examination reveals that unhealthy food such as fast foods or cigarette should be taxed for several reasons. I will explain my position providing examples to support my point of view.
One reason is that taxing unhealthy food will actually decrease the consumption of bad foods dramatically. I believe that everyone wants to be healthy. However, even though they know they will become sick when they constantly eat bad food, they cannot help getting them as most of bad foods such as fast food are cheap and very easy to access. Therefore, when unhealthy foods are taxed, there will be no reason to choose bad food instead of healthy foods for consumers.
Another reason is because companies will not inform people the bad points of their products. Usually, they stresses the only good points of their product. To illustrate this point, let’s take the example of drinking soda. It contains great amount of sugar which affects badly for people’s body. However, companies do not talk about it. Instead, it just advertises how great the taste is. Therefore, I strongly believe that the government has responsibility to take an action to protect their citizens by taxing bad foods.
On the other hand, some may argue that unhealthy food should be treated as same as good foods. These individuals may assert that people should have freedom to choose bad or good food which is in same condition. However, the problem is that taking a unhealthy food such as cigarette does not only affect the people who gets it, but also it affects others. For instance, let’s say that a person smokes in public. Then, the people around the person would inhale the smog of cigarette at the second hand. Therefore, I believe regulation is needed for these kinds of products.
In summary, while there are arguments to be made for both sides, it is clear that there are greater advantages of taxing unhealthy food because of the above mentioned reasons.
|