IELTS Writing Task 2: Request For A Review

Task2: In some countries an increasing number of people are suffering from health problems as a result of eating too much food. It is therefore necessary for governments to impose a higher tax on this kind of food.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

For the past decade, fast food consumption has been rapidly increasing in many countries and causing various health issues among consumers. Some people argue that one of the effective ways to address this issue is to apply a tax on fast food, so that people would consume them less. In my opinion, this measure has obvious drawbacks and should not be the first action to take.

On the one hand, implementation of extra taxes has been an efficient way to discourage consumption of the most goods. For instance, policy makers in Singapore have shown the world that people can be successfully discouraged to own cars by implementing special taxes. Moreover, several other Asian nations added new types of taxes to plastic goods and achieved positive results from these initiatives.

On the other hand, food is not a luxury for many people and most of them do not choose to eat fast food due to its convenience only. Typically, users choose junk food over healthy options because of its affordability. Therefore, imposing a higher tax on junk food would simply increase its price and might even lead to starvation, particularly for people in lower income levels. Instead, it might be wiser to offer healthier alternatives with similar price levels. For example, offering some tax benefits for restaurants which offer organic menu for their clients.

In conclusion, fast food consumption has detrimental effects on people, hence people should be actively discouraged from buying them. Even though simple method would be making them more expensive by adding more taxes, it has a high risk of complicating individuals’ lives who cannot afford healthier options.