It is bewildering why people start consuming nicotine even though there is scientific research that proves that it can cause various diseases such as lung cancer. Nonetheless I believe that smoking (or any other activity in life) is a matter of choice and that is why every person should be able to choose whether they want to do it or not.

Therefore, I agree with the UK Tobacco industry when they claim that it is unjust for the Labour plan to tax them to pay more for NHS. (National Health Service).  They already pay an 86% tax per pack that goes to the NHS funds and which they contribute £12.3B each year while the expenses of the NHS to treat smoking are only between £2.7bn and £5.2bn. Hence, the NHS is already taking advantage of the tobacco industry and now they want to increase their power over them even more. Some might argue that the Tobacco industry doesn’t have any benefits for society but, like any market, it has the right to supply their product and it is the choice of the consumer to buy it. It is irresponsible and irrational when ill people demand health attention for problems caused by smoking when it was them who allowed them to happen.

The Labour plan should also consider how many people work in the Tobacco industry as like any company, they offer millions of jobs to work in factories, offices, etc. and a reduction in their revenue would mean a shortage in wages or even worse, massive lay off. This is something that happened to Imperial Tobacco in their Nottingham cigarette factory which they had to close at the start of the year. Instead of focusing and clawing on the Tobacco industry, they should take care of more meaningful problems such as illegal drugs.

References:

Monaghan, A. (2014, September 23). UK tobacco firms protest at Labour plan to tax them more to pay for NHS | Business | The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/sep/23/uk-tobacco-firms-protest-labour-cigarette-tax-pay-nhs

Thesing, G. (2013, July 30). British American Tobacco profits rise amid higher prices – Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9899278/British-American-Tobacco-profits-rise-amid-higher-prices.html

We have all, at some point, made fun of workers in McDonalds, Burger King and other Fast food chains saying that if you are lazy in high school or in university, you will become one of them. The truth is that they work all day, frying, attending, cooking, etc. and they receive a worthless salary (US$7.25/hour). How can this be possible when companies such as McDonalds gain thousands of dollars each day?

The worst part is that even when McDonalds faces strikes all over the country, they make the public believe that these are staged demonstrations and that it is not really their workers who are fighting against this injustice.  McDonalds should instead respond by hearing what their workers have to say because in an enterprise what gives you profit is the human component, machines and artifacts can facilitate the work but they don’t have any creativity or intelligence, they just do as they are told.

I know it might be difficult to increase the hourly salary to US$15 and that even when President Obama is trying to raise the minimum wage to US$10.10 people say that it would kill job creation, but I cannot understand how McDonalds’ (and other companies) employers win fairly great amounts of money and not even think about how poor some of their employees are; some not even being able to maintain their own family.  They are so desperate that they do not care about being arrested and you know that when someone is not afraid of confronting the police, they mean it.

References:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/04/fast-food-protests-dozens-arrested-low-wages

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/sep/08/fast-food-workers-protest-strike-paid-mcdonalds

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