Academic Writing for International Students of Business

2 Finding relevant points

When preparing to write an essay, you have to search for information and ideas relevant to
your subject. Therefore, the key points that you select must relate to that topic.

You are given an essay title: ‘Taxation as an instrument of social policy – discuss.’

 Read the following article and underline the key points that relate to your essay topic.

1.5:Finding Key Points and Note-making 35

retired and have been successful with unusual products such as a robotic seal,

which serves as a pet substitute for the lonely. There are, however, certain

difficulties in selling to this market. Some customers resent being addressed as

‘old’ since they see themselves as more youthful, while there is a huge variation

in the profile of the baby boomers, ranging from healthy and active to the bed-

ridden and infirm.

CAN TAXATION REDUCE OBESITY?

Taxation has been imposed by governments for thousands of years, and initially

the basis of taxation was something easily assessed, such as land, hearths or

windows, all of which were difficult to hide from the tax collector. But in more

recent times governments have sought to use taxes not just to raise revenue, but

also to reward virtue and discourage vice.

The practice of imposing taxes on products which are thought to have a negative

social impact, such as alcohol, has been accepted for several hundred years, and are

now called Pigouvian taxes (after the twentieth-century economist Arthur Pigou).

Tobacco, gambling and carbon taxes are common examples. It has recently been

suggested in the USA that so-called junk food should be taxed in order to

compensate for the social costs of the obesity it is believed to cause. This proposal

is based on the estimate of the medical costs of obesity, which is thought to be

linked to cancer, diabetes and heart disease. These costs are shared by all

taxpayers, not just the obese, so it is claimed that taxing items such as hamburgers

and sugary drinks would both reduce consumption and help pay for medical care.

A study of the long-term effects of changes in food prices (Goldman, Lakdawalla

and Zheng, 2009) argues that significant changes in consumption, and hence

obesity levels, can be achieved over the long-term. They claim that raising the price

of calories by 10% could eliminate nearly half the increase in obesity over a 20-year