Question:
In many countries, the proportion of older people is steadily increasing.
Does this trend have positive or negative effect on society?
Essay:
Thanks to great improvements on health care and living condition, people's life expectancy is considerably extended. Along with the decline of birth rates in recent decades, aging populations seems to be an inevitable tendency all over the world. This may sound beneficial for individuals, whereas it is a completely difference story for societies.
An aging population leads to certain major social problems. Labour shortage is the one of most vexing. Senior workers retire after a certain age, leaving thousands of vacancies in the labour market. This would cause a large negative influence on the productivity and creativity on the entire society. In the meantime, the increase of senior citizens brings about more financial burden. Health care cost rises accordingly as the number of old people grows, since they need more medical resources as the result of the natural aging process. Pension benefits for more population make the situation even worse. Therefore, with less productivity yet more cost, the government is probably facing finance deficits and the whole economy will go depressed eventually.
However, the elderly still have great value for society. Their experience accumulated for decades can be valuable assets for younger generation. To make a good use of such experience, they can work as senior consultants, providing professional advices and guidance. Another good news is, as the technology develops, the health condition of older people is greatly improved. Such trend even makes the WHO change the definition of old person from 60 to 65 years of age for most developed countries. This suggests senior citizens may be healthy enough to continue their work life, postponing their retirements and keeping contributing to the whole society.
In conclusion, problems caused by increasing older population, such as labour shortage and finance deficit, is gradually coming to the surface. As more countries are aware of them and start to address them, more reasonable solutions will be available in the near future.
