For and Against Essay - David Martínez

For and against Essay

The dilemma of paying or not for music has been there since the possibility of download music for free, which is illegal, became available. But is it worth it? Should we pay for it or not?

First of all, the main reason all of us should pay for listening to music is that the law enforces us to do it, since it is illegal download any kind of music without having paid for it first. In addition, artists and record companies are losing lots of money due to music piracy which they would not lose if we paid for music.

On the other hand, we must take into account that nowadays the albums are very expensive. Imagine how much money we would spend if we had to pay for every single song we have in our playlist. We would end up without money.

In addition, there are many platforms such as Spotify through which we can listen to music without having to illegally download it. You can decide to listen to music for free, although you will be forced to listen to some adverts eventually, or you can pay a premium subscription to get rid of these adverts. Part of the money these platforms earn goes to the artists which songs are being listened, so they will keep earning money.

To sum up, I believe that we should not pay for music, given that we would run out of it if we had to pay for every single song we listen to. In my opinion, the best solution is to use platforms as Spotify, since they are completely legal and the artists keep earning money from their music.

For and Against essay - Irene Plana

Nowadays, music is available to everybody thanks to the Internet. However, there are two ways of listen it, one of the is the legal way, pay it for listen it, and the other is the illegal way, by music piracy.

One one hand, by music piracy you can get any song that you want to listen without paying it. This is a good way for the people that don't want to pay to get one song that will only listen one time and if they only want to listen just one part it's a good way. Also for the people with less resources, have the right to be able to listen to music and by the pirate way, they can do it without spending money.

On the other hand, paying for music is a good way for record companies and music artists to earn money, by paying for it means that you like that song and makes them create more music as you listen to them and they get a reward for making what people want to listen to.

In conclusion, I believe that people should continue downloading music if they want to listen one song of an album but if people like more than one song of an album, they should pay for it because artists have to have a reward for the work they do.

For and against essay - Lluís Vaz

Buying or pirating music is a problem recently created by the innovation done by web pages such as Spotify or Youtube. Those pages, provide a lot of opportunities to the user of downloading and listen to their favourite musicians for free. But, is this downloading of music profitable to the author of it?

Despite all the critics that we have been listening from the news since the beginning of free downloads, some experts explain that authors take profit from the pirates of music. In their opinion, not paying for music has given the opportunity to have more globalized music. That globalization helps people to listen to music that in case there have to pay they will not listen to it, using pirate platforms to make the people aware of the music are they making. Leveraging that situation, authors can benefit from free listens if they are able to involve people in their activities, such as concerts or if they are able to create a good marketing campaign to get the public known of the products that they are selling, such as merchandising and, for sure, their original album.

Although some authors think that this system could be profitable, the majority of them think that this new system affects directly to little and medium groups of music, which are not able to live from the music they made and must balance their usual job and music creation. Some starters of music, are complaining because nowadays living only from music having a small number of listeners is impossible. This fact is caused by a not earn of money only by some people listen to your music, because if you don't have the ability to make a big concert or selling merch, you won't receive any kind of money for your job.

In my opinion, I think that pirating music is a good fact. Not paying for listening to music, gives the opportunity to lots of people to get known of your music, to enjoy it and to share it with others, what can be really profitable for the author of that music. One time that new music in more and more popular, it's the time on taking benefits by offering new things to your listeners, like enjoying your voice in a concert on wear your t-shirt on their trip to the beach!

for and against essay - Jordi Codina

It is a fact that nowadays many people usually download music for illegal ways. Is it fair or do we have to buy it before?

On the one hand, people who work for record studios must get their salaries and it is not possible if everyone obtain for free. Another drawback is that this practice could make disappear many jobs and allows people to earn money easily.

On the other hand, there are more variety of music in illegal pages than legal and in illegal webs, you do not have to pay or listen adverts to enjoy your songs. Furthermore, pirate music force record studios to offer good prices for their memberships.

In my opinion, is good to listen pirate music, because it is free, however, the best way to play music is use platforms where you can listen your songs with few adverts, like YouTube or Spotify. As well, we will have our music and pirate downloads will make do not increase the prices.

For and against - Adrià Gonzàlez

 In the world there are thousands of languages spoken in different regions. Each person speaks at least one language (normally) to be able to communicate with the people around them, although there's people who can speak 2, 3 or even 5 languages. But for a bilingual person not everything is good. So, is being bilingual good or bad for people?

On one hand, in the brain of a bilingual person there are two languages that are constantly active and involve an additional processing cost. Furthermore, it has been shown that bilinguals know fewer words of any semantic category in comparison to people that speak fluently only one language.

On the other hand, research has shown that the brains of children who grew up speaking two different languages develop better cognitive functions. The brain of a bilingual speaker quickly gets used to managing two languages at the same time. This helps to develop skills for functions ranging from inhibition, working memory and switching attention.

To conclude, what we can say about bilingual people is that has a lot of advantages, like meeting new people because of a new language that you've learnt, but it also has several disadvantages such as locking with words from another language or similar cases.

For and against essay - Ana Gozálvez

People have been discussing for a long time whether it is better to pirate music or to pay for it. Some people say that music piracy should end since artists lose a lot of money because of that. Others claim that the prices companies charge are too expensive, and they already win lots of money.
On the one hand, it is true that as long as people keep downloading pirate music, artist and corporations will lose money which otherwise they would win. But the ones that get more harmed are little musicians; if these artists get their music illegally downloaded, it is harmful to them, even more, if they intend to live off the money they make.
On the other hand, fans already buy albums and merchandising of their favourite musicians, because a group of people doesn't pay for it, the difference in the money they get isn't that big. Also, if people paid for every song or album they listen to, they will have no money left for things such as the basic needs.
To summarize, I believe people should keep downloading music illegally, as long as they pay for some albums, but not each album they listen to, that way they would run out of money. But people should support the little artists by buying their albums since they are the ones with fewer money incomes.

For and against essay- Sara Benito

We have all argued about whether or not the music company was profitable for all the music that is pirated.

Firstly, I think that many people, including myself, listen pirate music by the fact that music companies put very high prices on their music. That causes people to stop having interest in paying for music, and that there is a means to listen to them for free is much better.

On the other hand, if everyone pirate the music nobody would pay for listen it and the artists would not raise money for their company, which would make nobody want to work on it.

To sum up, I think that is better listen pirate music because is free and you have more money for you, although if prices fell many more people bought it.

For and Against Essay - Rubén Sánchez

Music is one of the most popular things in our society. There are many ways to listen to music, one of them is pirated and the other way is paying for it.

Firstly, I think listening to music should be free because if you have to pay for every song you listen to, you would end up poor. In addition, new songs are coming out every time, and if you are going to buy each of the songs that come out every month or week you would also end up poor. Another advantage is that by not having to pay to listen to music, the songs will be more downloaded and therefore more listened in a general level, which will cause a greater popularity of it and its knowledge around the world.

On the other hand, if the songs are always downloaded in a pirate way, the artists and singers of these songs will not receive money for it although there are platforms such as YouTube in which they do earn money if their songs are heard free. Another disadvantage is that pirate downloading of music is illegal and therefore you are committing a violation that can be sanctioned with a fine.

To sum up, I think it's better to download music illegally because you save a lot of money on songs because they always take out new songs.

For and Against essay - Alan Pons

Advantages and disadvantages of being bilingual

We live in a world with more than 5.000 languages. Because of this, we can't speak with all the people in the world. The language that we speak is just speaked in a few countries in the world, the communication when we travel to countries where people don't speak our lenguage could be complicated. Someone is bilingual when he speaks more than lenguage. Someone who is bilingual can speak spanish and english, for example. So, being bilingual is good for ourself?

On one hand, being bilingual is good because lenguages like english, wich is considerated the internacional lenguage, will ease the comunication arround the world. Furthermore, you can meet new people who will teach you new things.

On the other hand, the only bad thing of learn new languages is the process of learning, because there's nothing bad in the fact of being bilingual.

In conclusion, being bilingual is a really good oportunity to get some new knowledge and meet new people. The worst part is the process to be bilingual, because it could take a long time and could be hard. But if you try and get it, you will be more happy at the end.

Opinion Essay - Albert Cortés

Nowadays, many addictive substances are illegal because of the consequences they have, but there are some others, such as tabacco and alcohol that are completely legal, and great quantities of these are consumed. Why does the government not outlaw these even if they are addictive and harmful yo our health?

Fist of all, any drug not only affects you as a consumer, it also affects the people around you. Both substances can affect the entire body, from the heart, to the nails, teeth or skin, and also produce different types of cancer.

In addition, about alcohol, being drunk without control, may change your character. You can feel lazy, dizzy, and soon, sleepy. This causes many accidents, especially traffic accidents, as there are people who fall asleep at the steering wheel.

To sum up, I think that all kinds od addictive substances that negatively affect health, should be illegal, because in the long term, they only carry consequences and not benefits.

Opinion Essay - Marc Manzano

Governments around the world take care of the health of the citizens of their respective country by performing various acts. One of them is illegalizing some substances that can be harmful to our health. But it's okay? It's enough? It is always so?

Actually there are many studies that show that substances such as tobacco and alcohol are harmful to our health. Many governments have created impostos to prevent citizens from buying these kinds of products but they are legal.
In my opinion, governments should make tobacco illegal because it is much more harmful to health than alcohol. On the other hand, I believe that the regulation on alcohol consumption should remain like this, it is true that there are many people with various problems but I do not think it is as harmful as tobacco in its regular measure.

In short, governments do not have to outlaw tobacco and alcohol to try to make people give up drinking.

Opinion Essay - Ana Gozálvez

Black Friday

Who has not heard about Black Friday at least once in their life? It is extremely frequent to watch Black Friday publicity on TV or see it when you go to a shopping centre during November, but, is this necessary? Is it a good idea for shop owners to offer large discounts before Christmas?
First of all, I believe that this day is not necessary for our lives. Although you may get some good discounts, most of the times you buy things you do not require. It is indeed a new form of consumerism.
Secondly, I think people feel attracted to buy during Black Friday because of the discounts, not because of whether they need or they do not need the product. Also, the fact that Christmas comes very soon also makes costumers feel more inclined into buying.
At this point, it has become almost an obligation to take advantage of this discounts, and businesses also take advantage of that; some even trick the buyers into believing they have lowered the price of a product when they have left it the same or even have increased it!
If people only buy what they need during that day, the businesses would not win as much money as they do! This clearly benefits the businesses, because, despite the fact of the existence of discounts, they sell way more products than any other day of the year. As a result, Black Friday is not good for the locals business who have to keep up with the very competitive discounts that globalized businesses apply during that day.
To sum up, I feel like Black Friday is a new form of consumerism which benefits globalized businesses and damages local businesses. It is a form of publicity created to engage the consumers into participating in it, and we could perfectly live without this day.

Marcos Martínez - Opinion essay

Smoking and alcohol drinking habits has always been seen as a normal thing because people feels it like something that brings them peacefulness and reduces anxiety, but, as far as I am concerned I reckon it is not something that should be normalized.

Firstly, tobacco and many other substances are not a good way to reduce anxiety and stressful situations, due to the fact that those substances will harm you most than they can be useful for you. There are healthier ways to protect you from getting anxious and stressed, and so you prevent yourself from getting dependent on those drugs.

Secondly, there are more people living around you and, when you're smoking, you're making someone else smoke as well, regardless of whether you are at home with your family or in the street. Moreover, you're making anyone who is next to you pay the consequences of this habit.

To sum up, tobacco and other drugs are more harmful than helpful, so, I consider all drugs should be illegal.

Opinio essay — Pau Peña

Both alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs in virtually every society. They enjoy great acceptance and have been part of human history since ancient times. Who has not participated in a social gathering and enjoyed a good glass of wine?

Alcoholic drinks are part of a tradition. In a report of the Organization of American States, we want to raise awareness about the problem in which alcohol abuse can occur. In it, it is detailed that

However, we must not forget that alcohol is the main cause of traffic accidents. That is, these accidents are caused by people who drive in an ethyl state. Regarding tobacco, something similar happens. It is the drug that most affects the respiratory system and the main cause of death due to the deterioration of these organs.

Like everybody know, "hard drugs" like cocaine, MDMA, LSD, heroin, etc are completely illegal in most countries. The people usually sees this substances like that are bad for health and it's stupid to take it. By the other side, other substances like tobacco and alcohol are legal, and also are dangerous to consumer’s health. W The question is, if tobacco and alcohol make similar effects and can generate addiction and health problems like the others, why these one’s are legal? I believe that the problem is not the fact that alcohol and tobacco have to be legalized, the other way around other types of soft substances such as cannabis would have to be legalized and raise awareness about their use and doses to avoid risks and problems. Another point to note is the fact that although these substances are illegal, people consume them daily so we can see that continue making them legal would dont’ have sense and legalizate it will not bring any negative change. As I said in the other paragraphs all its positive cause if these substances are legal, the government can have more control of them, the government can collect taxes and the most important point is that the people can be imformed and educated to don’t be sare of them, normalizate as tobacco and alcohol and use it like them in a recreative, dissuasive or medical intentions.

Miquel Sempere - Opinion essay - Option 1

Like everybody know, "hard drugs" like cocaine, MDMA, LSD, heroin, etc are completely illegal in most countries. The people usually sees this substances like that are bad for health and it's stupid to take it. By the other side, other substances like tobacco and alcohol are legal, and also are dangerous to consumer’s health. W The question is, if tobacco and alcohol make similar effects and can generate addiction and health problems like the others, why these one’s are legal?

I believe that the problem is not the fact that alcohol and tobacco have to be legalized, the other way around other types of soft substances such as cannabis would have to be legalized and raise awareness about their use and doses to avoid risks and problems. 

Another point to note is the fact that although these substances are illegal, people consume them daily so we can see that continue making them legal would dont’ have sense and legalizate it will not bring any negative change.

As I said in the other paragraphs all its positive cause if these substances are legal, the government can have more control of them, the government can collect taxes and the most important point is that the people can be imformed and educated to don’t be sare of them, normalizate as tobacco and alcohol and use it like them in a recreative, dissuasive or medical intentions.

Opinion essay - Simón Gasión

There are various hundreds, if not thousands, of drugs that the average citizen doesen't have access to because they are regulated or outright prohibited by the government and authorities. These drugs provide the consumer vivid hallucinations and other effects, and it's possible to develop a dependance on them if consumed regularly. However, there are other legal alternatives that pose as much of a threat as any other drug, such as tobacco, which has given a worryingly large amount of people including teens addiction to nicotine, or alcohol, that can blur the line between reality and hallucination as much as other banned drugs if taken in large quantities.

The government alredy intervenes in the consumption of tobacco and alcohol, you can see a warning that smoking will kill you on every pack of cigarettes, but people completly disregard it and because of that the percentage of people with lung cancer grows by the day, and alcohol is the cause of a vast majority of accidents on the road, so if you consume alcohol you are not only putting yourself but those around you in danger as well.

It is true, however, that alcohol helps people let loose in parties and other social gatherings, making it easier to socialize for introverts or meeting new people, and smoking a cigarette has been shown by numerous researchers to reduce anxiety, so they are not entirely bad, however the risks they produce far outweight the benefits, which at least in the case of tobacco can be obtained through other, far less harmful alternatives such as an electronic cigarette. In the case of alcohol, a bit more of government intervention would most ceirtainly save a lot of lives and prevent many alcohol induced comas in young or first-time drinkers.

Opinion essay - Pol Collado

Drug legalization

For some years, the legalization of drugs has been widely discussed, since there are those who claim that by prohibiting the sale, possession and consumption of drugs, the right to individuality of each person is violated, depriving them of doing with their lives what decide.
Guillermo Garat, author of the book "Marihuana and other herbs. Prohibition, regularization and use of drugs in Uruguay", states that by legalizing drugs, drug trafficking and the mafias it entails would be eliminated. However, would the legalization of drugs really be a solution to this important problem or would it lead to many more?
Multiple scientific studies indicate that people, when they get high, lose full knowledge of their actions, so they can incur violent acts without being in their full faculties, since it is demonstrated that a person under narcotic effects becomes selfish and self-centered, subtracting him any possible importance to the people around them.
While there are essential drugs for public welfare, narcotic abuse presents one of the main public health problems, since the aggressive nature of certain substances is highly detrimental to the health of citizens. Drugs, for the most part, are the cause of thousands and thousands of deaths around the world.
The drugs in their majority, do not contribute any considerable benefit to the society, in spite of which there are those who affirm that the use of the drugs increases the happiness of the consumers, is a temporary well-being that causes more damages than goodnesses.

Opinion essay - Lluís Vaz-Romero

Governments often make many addictive substances illegal because they may harm the health of those who take them. /.../

Nowadays, the idea of prohibiting by law substances actually legal such as alcohol and tobacco is said by a lot of people. Their arguments, a bad impact on people's health and as well and their impact between young people in our societies. But, that would as worth as they think?

First of all, we have to pay attention to the way that substances are sold. In my opinion, restricting the way that substances are sold would be more worth it by far than prohibiting it. Actually, many of the people who buy those things is because they see it as a cultural thing, so the opposition to those measures would be incredibly high. In order to avoid young, ill or manic-depressed people buy those substances and letting only healthy people but them, my suggestion is providing capable people with an individual card required to buy them.

Secondly, I would like to talk about the benefits that actually gain a state with taxes. From my point of view, that benefits actually let the countries build and improve their services, so the stop of duties from those products would become our countries worst. In addition, the black market won't start supplying alcohol and tobacco from other countries, don't letting the country control and gaining money.

Thirdly, none control in the way that substances are produced could have saddest consequences that one's that we expect. Crime syndicates would have control over those substances, making those substances one's with no medical and quality controls, being able to injure the population who buy those articles because are addict.

As a conclusion, I would say that those substances are not able to be prohibited yet. The risk that those substances produce and the benefits that the countries gain make them unable to be prohibited, so we have the thing in ways to control those substances, don't let people be addicted.

Opinion Essay - David Martínez

Should the government ban tobacco and alcohol?

It is well known that the sell and consumption of many drugs are forbidden by law in order to protect us from their harmful effects. However, there are some drugs, such as tobacco or alcohol, that are not forbidden. Should the government ban them?

As one of the government’s main duty is to protect us, seems logical that they should ban these drugs in order to prevent us from the negative effects that the consumption of tobacco and alcohol causes in our health, such as cognitive issues in the case of alcohol and pulmonary issues in the case of tobacco. By making these substances illegal, the average life expectancy would significantly increase.

On the other hand, the prohibition of these substances would eventually result in an increase of alcohol and tobacco smuggling, given that people would seek other ways to consume these drugs. This may result in an exponentially increase of mafia’s power, as well as of crime in general terms, which would lead the government to spend a bigger portion of its budget in police to keep the streets secure. If we add to this the big amount of income the state would stop earning from alcohol and tobacco taxes (because their sell would be forbidden), the result is lots of money lost that could have been invested in health service, education or other public services.

To conclude, even though these substances are very unhealthy for us, I strongly believe that the government should not ban tobacco and alcohol, as this prohibition may result in an increase of organised crime, which would lead the government to spend a lot of money, and so on. In my opinion, the cure would be much worse than the disease.