In many countries, the proportion of older people is steadily increasing. Does this trend have more positive or negative effects on society?
The world is getting older. You come across old people everywhere-in restaurants, on airplanes, in hospitals and even in Disneyland! Things were quite different 20 years ago, when young people dominated the world. Is this change in demography good or bad for society? I would say it has more negative effects than positive ones.
Doubtlessly, older people are much experienced in life, so to society, and particularly to the younger generation, they are a valuable treasure. This is because older people can give us constructive suggestions and can assist us in doing many different things, preventing us from making mistakes. So, seen from this perspective, an increasing proportion of older people in the population are not necessarily something bad.
However, it would not be accurate to say that having an older population always benefits us. It also has negative effects on society. First of all, the aging population is retiring from the working world. That means it does not offer society the labor it needs for its sustained economic growth. Japan has actually been troubled by its aging laborers who are destined to be the pure wealth consumers. Japanese people are even encouraged by their government to give birth to more babies, not for themselves, but for the nation!
Secondly, rapid social development calls for more people with creative and innovative minds and generally speaking, these refer to young people. Electric bulbs and computers would never have come about without groups of young people who were not happy with the status quo and were bold enough to challenge established traditions. It is said more than 80% of the great inventions and literary works are created by people under 40 years old.
In a word, while older people enlighten us with their rich experience, they use up more than what they produce. At the same time, they are more likely to follow rules docilely. Therefore, the demerits of an aged population far outweigh its merits.