In the developed world, average life expectancy is increasing. What problems will this cause for individuals and society? Suggest some measures that could be taken to reduce the impact of ageing populations.
Nowadays, many
countries
are experiencing substantial increases in life
expectancy
. Many people
think that the trend is a positive development, but it has caused many onerous problems for many countries
. This
essay will discuss the effect of the ageing population
, and some of the ways that could be considered in addressing the problem.
There are several drawbacks that increasing the average life
expectancy
of older people
could bring to individuals and society. Firstly
, the growing population
of elderly people
puts a financial burden on governments. If life
expectancy
increases, the government
will have to pay more expenses such
as social welfare and pension while fewer people
will be working and paying income taxes. In addition
, older people
are more vulnerable to chronic diseases, such
as heart attacks or diabetes, that require special and expensive medical treatments to be effectively treated. Therefore
, the government
might have to devote a larger budget to healthcare in order to serve the growing demands of an ageing population
. As a result
, it reduces the national budget and weakens the economic growth of the country. Secondly
, ageing has a direct impact on the labour market. If there are a higher proportion of old people
, the government
will have to decide to extend the retirement
age
. As a greater number of senior citizens stay in the workforce, the competition for jobs will increase
. If the world of work fails to create new jobs, the end results can be fewer occupations available to younger people
and the rate of unemployment in the world will increase
day by day. On the contrary
, if the retirement
age
is not extended, the economy will suffer from a labour crisis. The ageing population
leads to a shrinking workforce because there are fewer people
of legal working age
.
There are some measures that governments could consider to resolve the issue of increasing life
expectancy
. One of the ways is that governments could extend the retirement
age
standard. Many countries
have a standard pension age
of 55, but they can extend it to 60 or even further
over because most people
at this
age
are still in fine physical condition good health and have normal working capacity. From there, it would reduce the government
's social welfare budget for retirees and address the workforce shortage. This
has been applied and proven its effectiveness in many countries
that are developed and have a high life
expectancy
. For example
, in some developed countries
like Japan or France, the government
has raised the retirement
age
to over 60 years old and even further
is expected to continue to increase
in the future. Another measure is to encourage childbearing and the immigration of young working adults. This
will help the country reduce the ageing rate of the population
and create a source of young labour for the country. In addition
, this
could help increase
tax revenues for the government
. This
measure, as one can see, is are increasingly being popular in countries
such
as Canada.
In conclusion, the rising life
expectancy
brings its own issues to the individual as well as to the society. However
, effective measures can be taken to mitigate these issues in the long run.Submitted by nguyenletrung90 on
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Word Count
IELTS says that you should write a minimum of 250 words in writing task 2. If you go under word count you will lose marks in task response.
A very long essay will not give you a higher band score.
Aim for between 260 to 290 words in writing task 2. This will ensure a concise essay and will be realistic in terms of time management. You have only 40 minutes to write the essay and you need around 10 minutes of planning time, so you will not be able to write a long essay in 30 minutes.