In the contemporary world, aging society has been a subject of concern in many parts of the world. Both developing and developed nations have been faced with the issue of the aging. Aging society refers to a portion of a country’s population that is approaching older ages which means there is an increased number of old people aged 65 years and above and a decrease in the number of younger individuals. Since the inception of the 20th century, America’s population has been growing day by day. The numbers of the aging population have moved from millions to billions. Every year, the world’s aging population rises by 2%. The trend of the aging population is expected to grow spontaneously in the next three decades. Today, United States has more elderly individuals as compared to the past decades. The aim of this paper is to look at the ageing society, its consequences, and solutions to the problem
Trends and Patterns in the Aging Society
Almost every country has an aging society which is a result of factors such as increased longevity, a decline in fertility rates, and aging of the baby boom generation ( Wiener, & Tilly, 2002).
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Increased Longevity
In many countries, people are living longer that in the past years. Today, life expectancy has dramatically increased in many countries. In 1950-1955, life expectancy was 48 years. On the contrary, from 2005-2010 life expectancy has been 68 years and the expectancy is expected to rise to 76 years in the coming decades ( Wiener, & Tilly, 2002).
Declining Fertility
In 1950s, fertility rate has fallen from 5 children for every woman to approximately 2.5 children. By 2050, the fertility rates are expected to decline naturally.
The Aging of Baby Boom Generation
The aging of a vast number of children born immediately after World War II in America accounts for the high levels of the aging society. Similar booms in other parts of the world have also led to the large numbers of the aging people.
According to UN Population Division, the number of individuals who are above 60 years is assumed to increase from 800 million (11% of the world’s population) to over 2 billion (22% of the world’s population) by 2050. From 1950-2050, the population is assumed to grow by more than 3.7 times ( Wiener, & Tilly, 2002). However, the population of the individuals who are over 60 years will increase by ten times. Among the elderly people who have over 80 years, their population is expected to grow 26 times more than the other populations.
Effect of the Growing Ageing Population
Effect on Economic Growth
The main effect of increasing aging population is that it slows the economic development of a particular nation. When a large part of a country’s population starts transitioning from pre-retirement age group to ageing age, the major effect is that it slows economic growth a country ( Bloom, David, & Günther 2010). Thus, a country may experience reduced growth in per capita income and also lower growth in the world’s economy.
Effect on Health Care System
An increasing number of the elderly patients in the society have also put a lot of pressure on the public programs such as healthcare system. The healthcare is facing challenges of how to care and support for all elderly patients in the society. Healthcare sector has been significantly affected by the aging population. The more a country has high numbers of the aging population, the more the money is spent on the healthcare. Life expectancy is usually high and as it lengthens, the healthcare costs are also expected to rise. The money that is spent on the ageing population may lead to shortage of money for economic development. Besides in some other nations where hospitals are privatized, the health care costs are usually high. In such a case, old individuals who have financial issues may not afford the costly medical care at a particular point in their lives. Thus, social problems arise and the living standards of people decline.
Effect on Social Roles
When population starts ageing, societal roles may change and there will be few young people who are supposed to take care of their aging parents and thus, this may break family relationships
Effect on Work
The aging society has a severe impact on labor supply. The increasing population of old individuals translates to fewer youths who act as the primary source in many companies and factories. In numerous nations, these unanticipated demographic changes will affect the labor market by reducing the growth of the workforce in the coming years. ( Ortman, Velkoff, & Hogan, 2014). The industries will also be affected because when employees retire, skills will be lost since there are few young individuals who work in the industry to replace the retiring personnel. The situation becomes more severe because of the decline in the new recruits who cannot replace the retiring population. Valuable resources are lost because these older people teach the new employees skills required to improve job performance.
Solutions to Aging Society
To solve the problems created by the ageing population, the government should devise come solutions aimed at preventing the society and the economy from getting worse and raise the living standards of different citizens. One policy option that the government should adopt is to control social security systems which may adjust country’s budget. The government can adopt other solutions such as increasing retirement age, delaying pensions, lower pensions, and increase income tax ( Ortman, Velkoff, & Hogan, 2014).
Increasing Retirement Age and Delaying Pensions
The government should come up with plans where people are expected to work long so as to boost the economy. The retirement age should be increased maybe from 65-70 years. From an economic perspective, this benefits the economy because it increases the tax revenue in that individuals will pay taxes for a long time hence increasing consumer spending (Casey et al., 2003). Delaying payment of pensions can boost the economy because funds will be saved and can be used in promoting other sectors. The only limitation of this policy is that it can be unpopular among people who are approaching their retirement age. The other issue with this option is that when the retirement age is increased, different employees are affected differently. For example, a manual worker may not work up to 70 years. However, for an employee working in an office, this may be easier.
Lowering Pensions
Pensions may also be lowered. When pensions are reduced, this means that old people may be motivated to continue working (Casey et al., 2003). Reducing pensions may lead to high treatment costs. Thus, the old individuals will not be able to cater for their medical care, entertainment, and other essential needs (Casey et al., 2003). The individuals will have no choice other than resuming their jobs to get more capital to look after their lives since the government may not cater for their needs.
Increase Income Tax
When the income taxes are increased, tax revenues, which pay for higher pension bills will also be increased. Nevertheless, when the income taxes are higher, work incentives may be reduced. High income taxes may discourage individuals from living in a particular nation (Casey et al., 2003).
Conclusion
Since the aging population has been growing at an alarming rate, the government needs to take actions to respond to the alarming issue. As discussed above, the aging society affects work, social roles, healthcare system, and economic growth of a country. Therefore, to respond to the issue, the government should delay and reduce pensions, increase retirement, and also increase the income tax.
References
Bloom, David E, David, Canning and Günther, Fink (2010). “Implications of Population Aging for Economic Growth”, Oxford Review of Economic Policy , Vol. 26, No. 4, 583-612.
Casey, B., Oxley, H., Whitehouse, E. R., Antolin, P., Duval, R., Leibfritz, W. (2003). Policies for an Ageing Society
Ortman, J. M., Velkoff, V. A., & Hogan, H. (2014). An aging nation: the older population in the United States. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau , 25-1140.
Wiener, J. M., Tilly, J. (2002). Population ageing in the United States of America: implications for public programmes International journal of epidemiology , 31 (4), 776-781.
