The Negative Impact Of Aging Societies On US National Security

Statistics show that there has been an increase in a number of elderly people as par the census over time. NCEA (n.d.) projects that the elderly population is to continue increasing in 2050 up to a value above 20% of the total population. The increment has been realized straight from 1990’s and the graph has continued with the upward trend.

It will be harder for countries who hire skilled foreign workers to find just that. With more elderly individuals than younger ones, countries will have to take into account the number of individuals they can actually hire. If there isn’t a large amount of young people in the world, than it will be difficult to find young skilled workers. That means, older individuals will be unable to retire at the average age of 65 because industries will need them to continue to work. For the elderly who is unable to work, our world will need the younger generation to care for them. What if we don’t have enough people from the younger generation to care for our elderly? Our book states that the younger generation needed for this, have not been born yet. Our world cannot run on robots, nor do we want it to. We have to have, “huge improvements in education, governance, and security. Women will need to start attending school and working in places where it is uncommon today. Terrorism must be sufficiently quelled such that the countries that nee young workers will accept immigrants from the countries that have them” (Smith, 2010, pg. 49, 50).Smith, L. C. (2010). A Tale of Teeming Cities. In The world in 2050: Four forces shaping civilization's northern future (p. 43). New York, NY:

With the continual increase in the elder population, whether or not an aging population is beneficial to society has become widely debatable. While many believe that this top-heavy type of population distribution poses a colossal obstacle in terms of economic development in the long run, others maintain that it is a testament to the development of a society. Given that a high proportion of elderly citizens puts immense pressure on the working force and would be a burden on the healthcare system, I firmly believe that the ever-increasing population of elders predominantly brings negative effects.

The workforce is growing older as the population ages. The elderly in this generation are living significantly longer. The amount of older workers is increasing due to the baby boomer generation. “The number of older workers over 55 is projected to grow at nearly four times the rate of the overall labor force” (Shultz, pg.7) Many older workers are choosing to stay in the workforce. An increasing amount of older workers are choosing to prolong retirement. Population aging will significantly increase the amount of older workers. “Between 1977 and 2007, employment of workers 65 and over increased 101 percent, compared to a much smaller increase of 59 percent for total employment (16 and over). The number of employed men 65 and over rose 75

The burdens of the upcoming aging in population in the US is not so much originated from the rise in the aging population, by itself, but rather from the slower anticipated rise in the non-elderly, employed population.

In 2010, nearly 524 million people in developing countries were 65 and older. Experts are now saying that by 2050, that total is projected to significantly increase to 1.5 billion. For the first time in our history, there will be more people ages 65 and older than there are children five and under. This phenomenon is due to the “baby boomer generation” now growing older and an increase in longevity. This increase in the elderly population can be seen around the world and will have a significant impact on medical institutions, society, and the economy.

In China, people aged over 65 constituted 5.5% of the population in 1990; by 2025, this will increase to 13.3% of the total population; and by 2050, the population aged 65 years and older will exceed 114 million and account for 23% of the total population, making China one of the most aged societies (Woo et al., 2002). The population is ageing dramatically in most societies including developing countries is the result of declining fertility and mortality (Lutz et al. 2008). In China, between 1950 and 2015, the overall fertility rate per woman declined from 6.11 to 1.66 due to the one child policy in 1979. In terms of mortality, the total mortality rate decline from 22.2 to 7.2 per 10,000 population over the same time, contributing to a steady rise in life expectancy (WHO, 2015). Life expectancy at birth has risen from 44.6 years in 1950 to 75.3 years in 2015, and is likely to be at 80 years by 2050 (UNDESA, 2013a).

The United States is facing unprecedented increases in the older adult population. Americans age 65 and over comprise nearly 13 percent of the U.S. population, and their proportion is estimated to increase to 20 percent of the population in the next 25 years. As the percentage of older Americans rises, so does concern for their economic stability.

During the years following World War II, men were returning home from war and the numbers of growing families reached a new height. The “baby boomers” are the specific demographic of people born during this decade. This group of people is the largest focus of current study in this topic of aging due to their active role as agents of social change. This generation has been viewed as a lucky generation. Over the last half century, they have thoroughly

Prospects p.237) Over the decades, human evolution has grown to billions of people. One of the consequences are that the numbers in population are leading to dramatic changes in economy. With a population comes aging, which is now facing us(future generations included) with long-term economic consequences. Much is being discussed and reviewed over the demographic difference caused by the aging of the baby boomers generation defined as those born between 1946 and 1964. Over the next few years, the increasing population of seniors and elderly people will impact our economy and it will lead to consequences such as; increased pension contribution, a decline in the workforce and public health care costs which means we will be faced with

The world is on the verge of a demographic milestone. From the start of documented history, young children have outnumbered their elders. However, during the past decade the number of people aged 65 or older outnumbered children under age five. Due to fall in fertility rates and significant rise in life expectancy, population ageing will continue or even accelerate. According to WHO, the number of people aged 65 or older is expected to increase from 524 million in 2010 to approximately 1.5 billion in 2050.

Aging is a process that occurs over a long period of time. The Baby-Boomers are 75 million people who began to retire in 2011 and will continue to do so over the next twenty years. This is not the generation of our parents and grandparents. My paragraphs on Gerontology/Social Work and Sociology above reflect this highest level of analysis because without solid data and deep probing of beliefs, many of which date back to childhood and may be subconscious, the

“According to the projections, the population age 65 and older is expected to more than double between 2012 and 2060, from 43.1 million to 92.0 million. The older population would represent just over one in five U.S. residents by the end of the period, up from one in seven today. The increase in the number of the “oldest old” would be even more dramatic — those 85 and older are projected to more than triple from 5.9 million to 18.2 million, reaching 4.3 percent of the total population” (US Census, 2012).

In fact aging is not just biological but psychological and sociological. No doubt, aging is a physiological phenomenon but the problems of the aged are sociological. The number of the aged above 60 is likely to go up from 350 million in 1975 to 590 million in 2005 according to UNESCO estimate. In developing countries more than half of them live. India alone had 43 million old people in 1981. The number of aged in future would increase at a much faster rate than ever before. Almost half a billion people, more than 90 percent world’s population were over 60 years in 1990 that number will triple to 1.4 billion by

In the contemporary world, the economic problem of population ageing caused is revealing gradually. UNESCO provides a standard that a single country or region in the population over 60 years is more than 10% of the total population, which is into the aging of the population. Both of developed and developing countries in recent years have to face more serious aging impacts for economic progress. According to population prospects (2009), the whole world will accelerate the pace of ageing after 2010. More precisely, share of elderly people is 22% in rich countries and 8% in poorer countries, whereas these figures will rise to 33% and 20%, respectively. Why does aging become a problem? The U.S. Census study points out that the worldwide ageing