Persuasive Essay On Sin Taxes

“Every year in the U.S., roughly 5,000 people under the age of 21 die from an alcohol-related incident including car crashes, homicides, suicides, alcohol poisoning and other related injuries” (11 Facts). Sin taxes on alcohol and cigarettes is a very available option at the moment and would have many substantial benefits. The controversy of imposing sin taxes, an extra tax, has been going on for a substantial amount of time because of the many dangerous effects. This issue has definitely had its turn in the media causing a lot of controversy. The issue has received much media coverage and many opinions either opposing it or supporting it. Sin taxes should be placed on alcohol and cigarette products in order to bring in more money, decrease

The amount of people who purchase these products would allow for a grand amount of money to be brought in. Over the years “the total sales steadily increased from 2006-2015” and sales have gone far into the millions for alcoholic beverages (Total alcoholic). The total sales have gone “from $176,723 million to $219,524” in only nine years for beverages that are alcoholic (Economic Trends). Opponents argue that sin taxes are an unfair form of taxation because the burden falls disproportionately on poor and working-class people (Cigarette and). However, the healthcare that is required to pay for smoking-related illness in the United States outweighs the burden of the sin taxes. It “costs more than $300 billion each year” for smoking-related illnesses only, which is a grand amount of money (Economic Trends). The cost is very high and that money spent could have been used for other more beneficial things such as specific types of research to finding cures. A sin tax would greatly benefit the economy and “a 10% increase in price has been estimated to reduce overall cigarette consumption by 3–5%” (Economic Trends). The sin tax would have many other great and beneficial impact not only on the economy but on the people as