Old Population

At first glance, the growth in the portion of elderly people seems to be a good indicator to an efficient welfare system and a prosperous nation. However, as an old saying “every coin has 2 sides”, this phenomenon may lead to a number of side effects on the country itself which I will discuss below.

Firstly, this demographic shift brings about both macroeconomic and microeconomic problems. The government has to spend more money on maintaining the pension system and health care services, instead of motivating other useful operations. Moreover, the greater proportion of elderly people causes the lack of young labor force which plays a key role in the development of the society. In comparison with young people, the olds is limited in both physical and mental health. They can neither do blue-collar jobs nor work hours under pressure. Their creativity is weaker as well. Therefore, the productivity and efficiency at work of the olds are lower than their children thereby worsening the country economy.

In terms of society, the change in percentage among age groups reflects an unbalance between the death rate and birth rate. Specifically, increasing elderly people may be a bad indicator to a low birthrate. This tendency may directly harmfully affect on both society and family structure in which there are more the olds than children. Also, this issue may result to the human resource import from foreign countries which may badly affect to the traditional custom and culture.

Old population is a big problem which many developed countries such as Japan or England are coping with. To ease its negative influence, governments may publish both short-term and long-term policies to encourage the birthrate as well as decrease the burden of the welfare system on caring the elderly people. While human resource import and increasing age of retirement are possible solutions, I believe that encouraging people having children is the most important way above all.

--- Posted on June 25th by santa ----