Implications of an Ageing Society - Bring New Burdens on Careers - Coursework Example

Implications of an Ageing Society Customer Inserts His/Her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 17, 12, 2011 Introduction Increased life expectancy due to improved health service provision and standards of living across the world has been one of the greatest achievements of most governments. This improvement in the quality and longevity of life has both its positive effects and negative effects on the social economic well being of a community. According to some critics of longevity, demographic ageing is a threat to human society just like wars, disease and natural disasters but this is true and contradictory to the goals of improved standards of living and public health. This is not always the case especially in the developing nations especially Africa where the aged are believed to be wise and contributing positively to the community. Increased life expectancy leading to the increased proportion of the aged is truly a success story to the improved standard of living and health service provision but also a challenge to most economies of the world. Lower birth-rates to due women engaging in formal employments can also be one of the major contributors to the increased aged populations therefore this challenge is a creation of the various campaigns by governments especially relating to family planning. Changes of family structure Normal family structures entails the existence of a few elderly people being depended upon by the young one for education, shelter, food and other social expenditure. The working population usually supports their immediate families with the provision of most essential goods and services. In a scenario where the child at a working class age supports their parents at retirement age is swiftly creeping in the developing economies where most elderly people had nor formal employment consequently not earning any pension or any welfare remittances form their poor governments (Weinstein & Pillai, 2001). This increases the burden of responsibility on the working population to not only their immediate family but extending to their parents. With the increased demographic ageing in developed economies, tendencies to a reversed dependence on the young people by the elderly have been on the increase. This is not necessarily direct economic dependence like in the developing economies but indirect one where the majority of the working population will be raising pension payments to the elderly and unproductive group. This elderly dependency burden may strain the economic health of a country especially where the majority of the people are elderly consequently making a small population of the working population to provide for the elderly. Bring new burdens on careers Demographic ageing has been one of the causes of unavailability of sufficient labour for the developed economy. Apart from intergenerational transfers like pension and geriatric professionals increased workloads, other professional will have to handle more than one work consequently leading lower quality work life for experts. According to Aitken & Gavin (2010), the number of old aged members of the population that a working individual has to support in the developed economies are on the increase leading to career people having to work for longer hours and harder. Demographic ageing is associated with the needs of a consistent health care by geriatric physicians and other professions in which most economies are not prepared to handle since the number of trained geriatric experts are few. In some cases in the developing economies direct support to the working population by the aged is common since most of the economic resources are in the hands of the old. This is one of the few scenarios where the elderly in the population are actively supporting the young. In the developed economies, more young people are taking on more that one employment opportunities therefore most female workers will not have time to bear children in their pursuit of their careers. The ability of a few working population to engage in more that two employment opportunities is as a result of increased aged population and this further increase this generational ration since most females will not opt for child bearing. Social service Social service is mainly provided by the governments and most social welfare expenses; pension, medical and other social spending will increase with demographic ageing since most aged people will require pensions, frequent and medical attention. It will be a big challenge to the economy where the aged are more that the working population yet they are the one generating revenue for the government to meet its obligations fro discharge of an enormous social welfare expenditure. In some cases especially where demographic ageing form the substantial portion of the population, the government has increase social welfare costs indirectly by introduction insurance products to cater for the longevity related challenges of health. Developing economies on the other hand transfer all the social service costs to the working population bringing in a challenge of increased dependency ratio. Most working populations therefore will take over the provision of medical services and support regards food and shelter, consequently increasing their individual and subsequently aggregate social welfare expenditures for the economy. Changing patterns of work, retirement age Work patterns have always been associated to the energetic age groups where the eight hour working days are encouraged. Flexibility in working hours for the aged are being encouraged while part time work and serving of more than two employers is common with the working population. Governments have also encouraged employers to extend the retirement age to give way for the aged to work and also in some cases the aged are still encouraged to take work if they feel thy are still able while employers encouraged taking them in. The flexible working conditions are a resultant of reduced work force due the ageing of the population. Developed world’s work forces especially in the political leadership are majorly the working population unlike in the developing nations where aged population dominates the leadership’s positions. This is associated to a believe that the aged are wiser compared to the young and active population. Health services Health service provision has been one of the contributory factors to demographic ageing but it has also major setbacks associated with it. With the ageing of population, health services requirements for the aged are greatly utilized. The aged requires a regular medical attention and most of the age related complications are expensive (Lucas, 2006). This will mean that most health insurance facility will incur huge expense with in some worst cases may lead to their collapse. This will be severe for the health service provision industry and governments. Geriatric specialists are few globally and where their services are required much is spent on them to attend to their clients. Governments may also incur cost in training specialists on geriatric health and this will further extend the costly medical requirements of the old. Pension systems Pension schemes have been developed to take care of the ageing population’s income requirement after retirement. With the demographic ageing, governments have been more critical on the management of pension funds since the pension expenditure increases. More monitoring and oversight authorities have been established to ensure that management of pension funds are with utmost good faith and prudence for the interest of the beneficiaries (Pressat, 2008). This has increased the overall pension management costs. In cases where the aged are more that the working population in a pension schemes, it is imperative that the previous management had been prudent else the requirements for the recurrent pension expenditure may overweigh the capacity of the pension fund. These challenges are only related to cases where the aged populations are more than the working populations. Conclusion The increased aged population in world are not only as a result of the improved health service provision and living standards but also lower birth rate associated to family planning campaigns and general perception of childbearing by women as being detrimental to their beauty. Generally longevity is good indicator of a healthy nation but also has its negative effects on the economy. As much as some demographic experts argue that longevity is good social phenomenon for societal social development, its economic and social related implications are severe and may lead to collapse of health institutions and social welfare schemes. Developed economies have felt the effects of the family planning and health programmes campaigns References Aitken, G., & Gavin, B., 2010. Population studies in New Zealand. Pennsylvania: Macmillan. Weinstein. J., & Pillai, V., 2001. Demography: the science of population. London: Allyn and Bacon. Lucas, D., 2006. Beginning population studies. Sidney: Australian National University. Wunsch, G., & Termote, M., 2001. Introduction to demographic analysis: principles and methods: a guide for managers. New York: Plenum Press. Pressat, R., 2008. Demographic Analysis: Projections on Natality, Fertility and Replacement. New Jersey: AldineTransaction. Read More