Humanity has come a long way as we evolve and adapt to the changing environment. Through the years, we have managed to overcome several limitations, which in the past were nothing more than dreams. We succeeded in landing on the moon and communicating over long distance, yet there are still some boundaries we have yet to cross despite our best effort. Aging is an inevitable process of nature. While we cannot stop the ticking clock in our body, we have made it possible for aging to be delayed and relieved to a great extent through advance technology and modern governance. High-tech equipments and medications are available for the treatments of more illnesses as our understanding of medicine improves and governments nowadays are doing …show more content…
For this group of people, most governments intervene to help to subsidise for treatments they genuinely need.
Modern governments promise old age security, which ensures that their citizens can fend for themselves during old age. The approaches, however, may vary from society to society. In some like The United Kingdom and Canada, government pensions are distributed to the elderly. In some others such as Singapore, the people are compelled to provide in advance for their old age dependency. Some societies have laws in place to enforce children to take care of elderly parents. For example, in Singapore, elderly parents may file in to the court if their children do not provide for them. However, there are various financial concerns about these methods. In the case of government pensions, the heavy spending of public fund on the old aged may take a toll on other areas of the nation’s development. Thus a method that works in a society may not work in another and sometimes, multiple approaches have to be taken.
However, better healthcare and protection from government result in rising age expectancy, which is a double-edged sword as on one hand, people live longer as shown in report (Friedland and Summer, 2005, Fig 1-2) and on the other hand, the proportion of aging population increases if the younger generation are not reproducing enough, and this is exactly the trend now in developed nations. In the
The human species of the world are growing older, and existing longer. Research shows that the average life expectancy of humans living past the age of 80, since the 1800s to that of 2011, has increased by almost 10% per year, with women leading the way with a growth expectancy growing from that of 6.4% to that of 9.6%, surpassing their male counterpart whose life expectancy show an increase from 5.9% to that of 8.2%. As the human life expectancy increases, there also comes an increase concerns by individuals and government official alike in regards to elder care. This literature looks at what is being carried out by individuals as well as government officials to deal with the cost of living longer. We will examination approaches identified
Joe Hocking defends this significant rise with the fact that our life expectancy has increased as opposed to when the pension was implemented 100 years ago and that our current economy can no longer support the increasing expenditure of the age pension. Even with this cost benefit to our economy, (Chomik, 2014) points out definite inequalities that would develop from this. For example older people within the workforce are already often discriminated against when seeking employment as they can be seen as a negative long term investment in terms of training. Joe Hocking’s argument on the rise of life expectancy seems ill supported when considering the fact the financially poor individuals have shown to have a lower life expectancy in comparison to the rich, thus resulting the inequality of the poor being able to enjoy less years of their retirement.
In Chapter 15: Aging and the Elderly, the U.S. birth rate has been falling for more than a century. It happens because children are more likely to survive into adulthood, and so couple have fewer children. As more women work outside the home, they choose to have fewer children. Greater material wealth and advances in medicine have raised living standards so that people benefit from better housing and more nutrition. The oldest segment of the U.S. population, is increasing rapidly and is already forty times greater than in 1900.
There is no doubt that the ageing population is a subject which has attracted much attention of Governments and communities in the world. Even in Australia, it is considered as one of the most crucial challenges which will have to confront in the next 25 years ( Hugo, 2014). Population ageing is defined as a change in the age structure of a country toward older ages. This is the repercussion of many elements such as the declining fertility rate, baby boom period and advanced technology in medical and healthcare extending longevity.While a number of studies have been done into proving this trend having several negative effects, it can be argued that there are many beneficial impacts both on national economy and society. This essay aims to look at the positive influences of older population on the workforce, then the Australian Government Budget, and finally the community.
Despite the challenges of an ageing population, the elderly can present many benefits to society through various ways. By increasing life expectancy, people will be living for longer. This is a very important benefit as they can be enjoying a longer and healthier life. Moreover, many elderly have the ability to continue to work. Therefore, it is important to provide them with choice to work for longer years if they are able to. This will benefit society as they are more experienced and often have better knowledge compared to younger people. This is more likely to improve the economy (not as some may have thought).
This rapidly aging population indicate that countries will count with less working-age people in their economy. The private sector tends to discriminate people over 50 which limits their participation in the labor force affecting the economy of countries. “Businesses will soon have little choice but to be more attentive to the needs and capacities of older employees; their ability to adapt could become a source of competitive advantage.” (Bloom et al). A huge transition is coming, and we have to be prepared to deal with those
In Rethinking Age and Aging, by Warren Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov, the concept of life-expectancy changing the meaning of age is explored in great detail. As quality of life and life expectancy improve, the ability of people to maintain certain lifestyles for longer grows. This ability is changing how society manages questions of age, with regards to social policy and age-specific benefits.
with aging can be exasperating and chronic illnesses even so much more. Taking care of one’s
A positive note, over time the health status of our aging population has shown some improvements, this could be linked to the lower disease burden of recent generations. More seasoned individuals can live fiery and dynamic lives until a later age than in the past and on the off-chance that they’re encouraged to be profitable; they can be contributors as well. Additionally the likelihood of current intensive biomedical anti-aging studies should not be left out; they may increase the healthy and productive time of human life in years to
Aging brings about many changes in life. Individuals fluctuate through the cycle of life and quotidian changes begin to shape them. Instead of fearing change, I embrace it and allow it to shape me in a positive way. Often times those reluctant to change go on to discover they suffered the most negative change.
One of my references focused on the idea of global aging, the expansion of living longer as an adult older than 60 years of age, every year at a rapid rate. It highlights the theory on how prolonged our elders have increased life expansion ever since the 1900s. According to the US Government's Administration on Aging, if this expansion of life continues by the year 2050, the percentage of older growing adults is expected to rise 25%. They were able to observe this increase since the 1900s using a longitudinal research method. The increase of lifespan in older adults could have bene modified by technology, education, and health. Technology is an example of how much we have discovered new scientific knowledge in our industry. Christina admitted
The proportion of older persons in developed countries is currently much higher than in developing countries; however, from a global perspective the majority of older persons live in developing countries. A notable aspect of population ageing is the progressive demographic ageing of the older population itself.
Scientists See Aging Cured,” explains how and why life expectancies will increase in the future. The author, Kate Kelland, references Aubrey De Grey’s predictions on aging, which is that there may be a large amount of medical control over it in the near future, with people going to their doctors for techniques such as gene therapies, stem cell therapies, and immune system stimulation to keep them healthier. De Grey says that age can be controlled better by repairing molecular and cellular damage before it becomes too harmful. The author explains how longer lifespans will mostly be a result of better overall
Aging is obviously a complicated process and many individuals hold different perspectives towards the topic. In my opinion, aging is best defined as the process of becoming older. In the concept of aging, there is a type of aging referred to as successful aging.
According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), it is projected that about 36% of the population born in 2013 will live past the age of 100 as compared to the 1940’s where mortality was estimated at 68years . These constant and gradual improvement in longevity estimates, will give rise to a higher ageing population being formed relative to a lower increase in working population. Consequently all current tax incomes to the government will not be sufficient to be pay the retirement income for the aging population, hence increasing the burden on the government to finance the ageing as it cannot sustain the pension system.