An ageing population problem

An ageing population problem is when a country has a high percentage of old generation people. There is no doubt that the ageing population is becoming serious problem in human lives, and the population of the world is becoming older and this is one of the most significant demographic events in the world today. This is caused because of more common medical facilities, which can supply for sick or injured people quicker, and, because of advances in modern technology and scientific research, treatments for illnesses have been discovered. This means that people are more possible to live longer than they would have done in the past.

The United Nations found that the ranks of 60 year olds and older are growing 1.9% a year, which is 60% faster than the overall world population. They predicted that by the year 2050, there may be four people age 15-65 worldwide. Currently the ratio in year 2000 is nine to one. These indicate that the elderly will outnumber the children (BusinessWeek 2005).

Also, knowledge about good produces people healthier. No more than twenty to thirty years ago, the most valuable thing was just to eat. They did not care about food. But now, a majority of people desire healthy food.As a result, knowledge about food and health make people live longer. This essay will discuss about how can the government solve these problems, and what problems might governments face with an ageing population.

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The ageing of population occurs because the numbers of birth rates have refused, or are declining in almost everywhere and also because older generation people are surviving to enjoy longer lives. Nowadays, current people’s educational level is very high. So, most people are more educated about the foods they eat and about health in common. Most of the current people think “Health is the most important.”, and I agree with them. So, physical fitness has developed into big business all over the world.

In the morning, many people exercise. For example, jogging, dancing and so on. Some people go to the fitness, health and Yoga club to control their health. A period exercise can avoid light or dangerous diseases. In richer countries, their birth and death rates started to decline in the 19th century or past. It leads to effects and problems which will show in below.

There is main effect of population ageing. The main effect is slower economic growth. When a large part of the population starts to move from pre-retirement to the post-retirement age group, the effect is that it slowed down the growth of the working age population. This means that there will be lower growth in per capita incomes and lower growth in the total economy. It is believed that the results of working will be lower than before when young generation are working.

On the other hand, according to the OECD, ‘older workers are more costly than younger workers, because of higher payment, fringe benefits and social payments.’ But some companies do not see this situation.  As the training payments for the younger workers will be far more expensive, companies are better of just keeping the younger worker.

The following equation, provide by (Gemma, T, 2005) shows in the simplest terms the relationship that must hold between the numbers of pensioners and workers and their incomes:

twL≡bR

L is the number of workers and R is the number of retired people. w is the income of each worker and b is the income of each retired person, while t is the proportion of workers’ incomes transferred to pensioners.

As the population ages, the ratio of non-workers to workers (R/L) increases (assuming that retirement ages do not change sufficiently to offset the rise in life expectancy). In 2004, there were approximately 4 working age individuals (aged 20-64) for every 1 person aged 65 and over. By 2056 this ratio is predicted to fall to about 2:1.

The result of this is that one (or a combination) of the following must occur:

1. The incomes of retired people will have to fall relative to those of working age people (b/w falls),

2. The proportion of workers incomes transferred to pensioners (t) will have to rise,

3. People will have to retire later. This increases the number of workers and decreases the number of retired people (Gemma, T, 2005).

As can be seen in this article, if the age of retirement is upping, the numbers of workers are increasing and numbers of retired people are decreasing. Another solution is that employ people who foreign workers. Nowadays, it is difficult to immigrate to rich country for them who live in poverty countries. If the government makes it easier than before, it will not be happen. According to David in this article, there are three of solutions.

Make people work more. European countries will have to rise the retirement age and draw more people, especially women, into the labour force. This will require much more flexible labour markets. Let in more immigrants. But this is only part of the answer. If Germany were to rely on immigrants to keep its ratio of workers to pensioners constant, its population would consist of 80 per cent foreigners by 2050. Have more babies. This does not mean traditional roles for women. Italy, where few women work, has on of the lowest birth rates in the world. Feminism is the new natalism. (David, M,2003)

It can be seen that it leads to many problems, there are three main problems. The one of problem is health care. It is widely believed that the elderly people is increasing nowadays, however, there is no enough place to support them to keep their good condition of health. Good health is about more than just physical wellbeing. It’s about people’s happiness and mental wellbeing too.

However, for example, in Korea, a lot of elderly people have to care for themselves even they can get a money from the government, because that money is not enough to live. In addition, they do not have opportunities to work to earn money. In my opinion, older people should have satisfactory financial security to continue their quality of life and wellbeing.

People are living longer, and gradually more demand nursing care, medication and management as their health get worse. Nurses working with older people need to empathise that the older patient has had a lifetime of dealing with stressors and in doing so have developed a range of coping mechanisms which include cognitive, behavioural and emotional responses and methods (Morris, V, 2007).

Thus, the government should consider that improved financial planning for older age, increasing older people’s incomes and reducing costs for older people. Many of the actions necessary to deal with these priorities are central government responsibilities. However, the importance of these issues is recognised within the county.  Ageing may be accompanied by deteriorating health, a declining quality of life and increased demands on the health services (Department of Health, 2005).

Some people argue that spending money on the elderly is a waste of money; it is better to spend on the young who can still contribute to society, however, we must first look at the fact that the elderly were once the young and were contributing to our society. Without their effort our developed society, which we succeed in, may not have been achieved.

The spending, on the elderly, could therefore be seen as the least we could do for all the profits they worked for to give to us. However, there is the other side of the coin. If we were to spend money on the young, it would possibly have benefits for our society in the future.

For example, if we were to spend money on education we could try and make sure that the young would develop into highly skilled workers, able to compete in the global economy. The elderly, as we already recognize, cannot contribute to society and we could say that further spending is a waste of money, when there are so many more benefits when spending it on the young. We could therefore say that the time has passed for the elderly.

Elderly people can abuse or neglect themselves by not caring about their own personal health and well-being. Elder self-neglect can lead to illness, injury or even death. Common needs that the elderly person might deny themselves or ignore are the following:

Sustenance (food or water)

Cleanliness (bathing and personal hygiene)

Adequate clothing for climate protection

Proper shelter

Adequate safety

Clean and healthy surroundings

Medical attention for serious illness

Essential medications

(The Economist, 2004).

Many countries already have occupied steps toward developing their old-age social insurance programs which can help them who elderly people. In my opinion, every country should have those programmes; it brings about elderly people feel more comfortable. 

Another problem that the organizations face is the loss of knowledge resulting from older workers leaving the organization without passing on their knowledge to others. As greater numbers of “knowledge workers” retire, they take with them insight about managing key customer relationships, handling exceptions to critical processes and a host of other experiences that can cost organizations significant amounts of time, energy and resources to recreate or replace. This will cause the organization to repeat their past mistakes and expose itself to additional financial and operational risk. General Kofi Adnan, United Nation secretary, said that “in Africa, it is said that when an old man dies, a library disappears” (BusinessWeek 2005).

Finally, the government might be face with ageing population problems, thus, there are some solutions which the government should do. As this essay mentioned that age of retirement is upping, more babies and let in more immigrants. In addition, the government should try to find out more solutions.

For example, the Australian government has three decision which are raise taxes for the young, It can use funds, which were to be used for other pressing long-term concerns e.g. environmental degradation and It can try to get the money to fund the bulge in the population by getting money out of them whilst they are still at working age.

Also, campaigners for the elderly have suggested a number of solutions for the supposed problems. For instance the government could pay for long-term health care costs and the residential costs paid for by the individual.

The government must also stress the need to younger generations to plan for their future by investing in private pensions as it has been estimated that around 8 million people in work are not members of occupational or personal pension schemes (Lg-employers,2004).

In conclusion, an ageing population means that better and more general services will need to be created to supply for the elderly. If society is willing to change its attitudes on the elderly then in the future they will be treated with respect rather than a trouble.