In many countries, the proportion of older people is steadily increasing, does this trend have positive or negative effects on society?

It is true that life expectancy is longer than ever before in the world, because of the development of technology and the growth of human wealth. While the long-life period will benefit individuals, I believe that it will bring some negative consequences for the whole society in the long run term. One problem associated with the ageing population is that the cost of the healthcare system will increase, and it can

therefore

impose a burden on taxpayers. It is widely known that most of the medical needs and costs occur in the

last

year of life.

This

means that governments need to allocate large amounts of funds in training medical staff and providing medical facilities in order to meet the huge demands of healthcare institutions.

As a result

, working people need to contribute more through taxes to support the governments;

otherwise

, the other essential service like education will be underfunded. The low productivity of the whole society is another problem, as the number of senior citizens increases. More specifically, If a large proportion of the population is at the retirement stage, most of the industries are going to lack of labour force, which will bring a negative impact on economic growth.

In addition

, while some elderly people choose to delay their retirement, the slow pace of work is still a factor that has an adverse impact on productivity.

This

is because either the ability to absorb information or the energy to complete work normally declines with age,

also

many elderly people hold a conservative attitude toward technology. To sum up, the considerable extension of life expectancy has put a strain on health care and made the workplace less productive.