Negative Impacts of an Ageing Population

Negative Impacts of an Ageing Population What problems might governments face with an ageing population? Discuss what can be done to alleviate these problems? Nowadays, the issue of ageing population is a subject of much attention in all over the world. Population ageing is a shift in the distribution of a countrys population towards older ages. This is usually reflected in an increase in the populations mean and median ages, a decline in the proportion of the population composed of children, and a rise in the proportion of the population that is elderly. It is predicted that the trend for an older population will continue during the first half of this century at least. What this means is that we now have more elderly people than ever. The ageing of the population presents a major fiscal challenge for the government. Currently, it is a serious problem for governments in terms of what the effects will be on healthcare, care services, pensions and future labor supply. One of the major worries about the growing number of elderly people in our society is how the system can afford to support them all. Ageing populations are likely to put significant pressure on public spending programs, such as health care and pensions. Health care is the area that is particularly affected by the changing age structure of the population in favor of older age groups. The health care system through out the world is already overly stretched and the rise in this sector of population can make the health system go further haywire. Cost of health insurance is on hike and if this is the case many people will not be able to afford the costly insurance after a certain point in their lifetime. The pattern of health-care costs at different stages in the average life-cycle has been established in a number of researches, and it implies that as the numbers of elderly increase, total health-care costs are also likely to rise, although the effect of increased life expectancy on per c apita health-care costs is more difficult to establish because it depends, in part, on the physical dimensions of the ageing process. In order to isolate and examine the effects of demographics on health-care spending, per capita real public health-care spending on people under 65 year-olds and on those 65-years and older is assumed to grow in line with productivity growth. The per capita expenditures were then applied to the population projections for their corresponding age groups. The scenarios of health-care costs indicate that in the United States and Canada, whose populations are growing as well as ageing, public spending on health care as a per cent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) would rise significantly. In the United States, the effects of ageing are exacerbated by the particularly high share of public health spending which is spent on those over 65 compared with the under 65 year-olds. Moreover, The Government has given a lot consideration to adapting the design of new builds to ensure they are suitable for the ageing population. Its national strategy, called Lifetime Homes; Lifetime Neighborhoods sets out the challenge and the governmental plan of response. The plan sets out sixteen design features that should be incorporated into all new homes, such as level access, wide corridors and doorways, ground floor bathroom facilities, and sockets and light switches at a convenient height.   Besides, ageing population also affect on the demand for these social services, especially for pensions. The underlying reason is that medical advances over the last few decades have greatly prolonged our life span, forcing the pensions industry to support a greater number of pensioners for longer periods. But the problem has been exacerbated in recent years by dwindling stock market returns. Pension funds depend on steady stock market returns to pay policyholders. And when share prices fall as they have been doing for the last two years it becomes harder for funds to meet their obligations. Lower returns have forced most of the big company-run pension funds to suspend generous schemes which guarantee employees a fixed proportion of their final salaries on retirement. A large proportion of firms have now set up defined contribution or money purchase schemes, which do not guarantee the final pension sum and are therefore less risky for companies. An additional gripe, as far as employers are concerned, is the 10% tax on dividends earned by pension schemes, which was imposed by the chancellor shortly after the present government was elected in 1997. Dividends play an important part in the long-term health of pension schemes. Any tax on them increases the possibility that the scheme will not have sufficient assets to meet liabilities. Another problem is that ageing population means fewer youth who is the main labors in almost factories and companies; the decreasing in number of young people may lead to the shortage of labor in near future. In many countries, expected demographic developments will lead to significant declines in the growth of the labor force and aggregate participation rates over the next decades. The overall participation rate could fall by some 4-5 percentages on average between 2000 and 2025. This will be accompanied by an increasing share of older workers in the labor force and a significant increase in old-age dependency ratios. The ageing also will have a serious affect on the industry, as essential skills will be lost when employees retire (given that there are fewer young professionals coming into the industry to replace those retiring). This is exacerbated by the fact that the number of new recruits is declining and there will be nobody available to replace those retiring. This would also mean that the industry is losing a valuable teaching resource, as older workers often use their expertise and experience to help develop new entrants. This issue is closely related to the industrys dilemma of skills shortages and its problems in recruiting enough new employees. While the industrys older members are acknowledged for their significant expertise and experience, it was suggested that a fresher perspective from younger employees is important to drive innovation in the industry. These respondents believe that developing new ideas and innovative ways of working will help to strengthen the industrys future. Cur rently, theres no balance between these different aspects of the industry workforce, causing important skills to be lost and innovation to be constrained. In order to solve these problems above, the governments should have some solutions to prevent the economy getting worse and improve the living standard for all people. Some of main policy options which are governments should do for adjusting pension systems to future challenges are delaying retirement, lowering pension payments (including replacement rates) and undertaking welfare reform. The combined effects of the falling the numbers of working people and the rising numbers of pensioners mean that even quite major increases in contribution rates or reductions in pension payments would be insufficient to balance those projects that face the greatest problems. Increasing contribution rates can be seen as simply a means of raising overall tax revenues and would need to be assessed against other revenue-raising options but it does focus directly on the problem. Increasing the retirement ages (delaying retirement) to the extent that it does actually lead to people working for longer, al so helps to avoid one rather awkward aspect of many of the other changes suggested. Raising retirement ages also provides the decreasing in the number of pensioners. In order to delay retirement, government should ensure all state workplaces are conducive to older workers remaining in employment or encourages retirees to return to the labor force. Besides, government should relax the process for obtaining exemptions under the act for those employers who wish to target specific disadvantaged groups for recruitment. Those countries with the lowest retirement ages, after current reforms are implemented, France and Italy, also face the largest pension pressures and raising retirement ages significantly would seem to offer the most scope for easing the pressure, especially as experience elsewhere indicates that raising retirement ages is a practical and feasible policy option. Another solution which the government should do to balance the ratio between the number of old people and young people are reducing the cost of raising children, even the education cost. On the other hand, these days many parents can not be able to pay for raising children. For example, in UK there are two sets of people paying the costs of raising children: their parents and taxpayers. The costs of raising a family are high for parents, even those who send their children to state schools. According to a December 2007 survey by the Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society, parents can expect to spend about  £186,000 (up from  £180,000 from a year before) on bringing up a child from birth to the age of 21. A typical family spends  £50,538 on childcare and  £47,310 on education, even assuming a state education through primary and secondary school. The costs for taxpayers are high too. With state education paid for by the taxpayer, those under 18 incur costs to the public sector as w ell as the older people who receive state pensions and people of all ages who receive other state benefits. Young dependants funded by the taxpayer receive state-supported childcare or nursery education from ages 0-5; primary school education from 5-11; and secondary education from schools from 11-16. Many go on to receive further education from 16-18; with some 43% of those aged 18-21 continuing in full-time higher education at universities and colleges and the government aiming to raise participation to 50%. In 2004-2005 state education cost taxpayers  £63.7 billion, of which  £4.2 billion was spent on under-fives,  £36.5 billion on schools,  £7.4 billion on further education and  £7.8 billion on higher education. With 9.3 million pupils in 34,600 schools, the average school place cost the taxpayer  £3,924 a year. Therefore, there are a lot of people do not want to have children because they can not afford to bring up them. In order to increase the number of young chil dren government should have policies to help young people. Furthermore, immigration should be another cure for failing birth rates and ageing population. Because, immigrant can get employed to simulate economic growth. However, the proportion of low-skilled immigrants in the total number of immigrants should not be higher than the proportion among natives to prevent unemployment from rising. Thus to stimulate investments and economic growth it is of utmost importance that immigration policy as a means to mitigate the ageing problem should not only focus on the number of immigrants, but also on their employability by keeping the skill structure in line with the skill distribution of domestic labor market entrants. Overall, older people are a significant and growing part of local communities. This inexorable trend presents both daunting challenges and real opportunities for local government. Older people offer rich life experience, well honed skills, knowledge and wisdom, qualities that significantly contribute to the social fabric of local communities. But our ageing population will also impact on planning and service delivery due to the slowdown in the growth of workforce and the increase in spending on caring old people.

Literary Analysis Night by Elie Wiesel

At first before he got deported from his home, Slight In Transylvania. He was an Innocent young boy who studied the Talmud â€Å"Hilled and Bea helped them with the work. As for me, they said my place was In school† (2). Since he was able to be sent to school by his family and have the chance to learn that shows that he was from a well off family. But once he entered the concentration camp, unaware of the terrors he was going to face, changed his life completely â€Å"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed (32)†.The life changing experiences that Lie went through in the concentration camps scarred him for life. The burning of the little children and their mothers affected him in such a way that it would stay with him for the rest of his life. Ell also turns from religious to loss of faith. When he was still in his hometown he studied the Talmud â€Å"l was twelve. I believed profoundly. During the day I studied the Talmud, and at night I ran to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the .This shows that he was dedicated to his religion and believed in God. He came from a religious family that taught him to praise God and show great respect towards Him. But when he was put in the concentration camp he lost his faith in God â€Å"For the first time, I felt revolt rise up in me, Why should I bless His name? † (31). For the first time Lie stood up to his religion and rebelled. The horrible things he saw in the concentration camps shocked him and angered him; How could his god let these things happen?Before he went to the concentration camps, such a thought wouldn't Ross his mind. He was loyal to his god and to his religion, until the dreaded day he entered the camp. Towards the end of the story, Ell shows no concern of death lingering In the air. He turns from caring into Indifferent. When his father was coming towards the end of h is life he did everything In his power to keep him alive, â€Å"Like a wild beast, I cleared a way for myself to the coffee cauldron, and I managed to carry back a cupful† (101).He tried giving his father anything that would help him get better, and took It back to IM, After his father's death nothing mattered to him anymore, It was as If he had lost everything he had fought for â€Å"I had to stay at Buchwald until April eleventh. I have nothing to say of my life during this period. It no longer mattered. After my father's death, nothing could touch me any more. † (107)All his cares and wants Oligopolies rater Nils Tanner Ana let nil He Llano's even tank AT Nils parents or AT ones he lost. Even when he was rescued he felt no Joy or relief, he felt indifferent.The settings in Night help readers to understand each character and what they present. Lie turns from innocent to haunted by being taken away from a secure community and being but into a completely different and horrible environment. He also turns from religious to loss of faith by forced to believe that his god would tolerate such an inhumane act and everyone in the world was indifferent towards what was happening in the concentration camps. Lastly he turns from caring to indifferent after his father passes away. Nothing mattered to him anymore as if he had lost everything he fought for.

Irena Sendler Essay

She takes the crying baby into her arms, turns her back on the hysterical mother, and walks off into the night. If she’s caught, she and the baby will die. â€Å"Promise me my child will live!† the mother cries desperately after her. She turns for a moment. â€Å"I can’t promise that. But I can promise that if he stays with you, he will die.† Irena Sendler is a heroic woman to say the least. Sendler was born February 15, 1910, in Otwock, a small town southeast of Warsaw, Poland. She was an only child of Catholic parents who devoted much of their lives to help Jewish workers. Her parents raised her to respect and love people regardless of their ethnicity or social status. She was especially influenced by her father, a doctor who defied anti-Semites by treating sick Jews during outbreaks of typhoid fever. Her father died of the disease when Sendler was 9. The last words her dying father told her â€Å"If someone is drowning in a river, you must jump in and try to save them, even if you cannot swim†. Even before the war, Irena had strong loyalties towards Jews. In the 1930s, at Warsaw University, she stood up for her Jewish friends. Jews were forced to sit separately from â€Å"Aryan† students. One day, Irena went to sit on the Jewish side of the room. When the teacher told her to move, she answered, â€Å"I’m Jewish today.† She was expelled immediately. Decades later, under Communist rule, she was considered a subversive; her son and daughter were refused entry into Warsaw University. During the time of the war, Irena was a senior administrator in the Warsaw Social Welfare Department, which was in charge of soup kitchens, located in every district of the city. They distributed meals and gave financial assistance and other services to the poor, elderly, and orphans. From 1939–1942, she was involved in acquiring forged documents, she registered many Jews under Christian names so they could receive services.

From Flesh to Faith - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1556 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2019/03/21 Category Religion Essay Level High school Tags: Faith Essay Did you like this example? When one thinks of an â€Å"idol† or a â€Å"false god†, many different images can come to mind; images such as: human-like statues, animal-like figures, things made of gold and bronze, money, and items of worth. What doesn’t always come to mind are things like family, friends, popularity, hobbies, electronics, sex, relationships, and the biggest, which is one’s own flesh.? What exactly is an idol then? An idol is literally anything that becomes more important than God. When people think about false gods, the image portrayed is an image of a person bowing down to their false god and worshipping it, which is true. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "From Flesh to Faith" essay for you Create order But bowing down and worshipping false gods can be as little as deciding to look at inappropriate content on one’s phone instead of finding satisfaction in God’s Word. It can be choosing to send that inappropriate photo if that’s what it takes to gain approval. And it can be as little as choosing to sleep in instead of waking up early to go to church. These idols may be small, but anything being put before God is seen as big to Him, the Creator of the things one worships. One can see these idols in their daily lives, but what did idolatry look like in the Israelites Society? What does idolatry look like in American society today? And how do these two completely different societies compare and differ to one another? God speaks a lot about idols and false gods in His Word. In Exodus 20, God speaks to the Israelites and gives them the Ten Commandments. The very first Commandment God speaks on is the commandment of idolatry saying, â€Å"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth† (Bible, ESV, Ex. 20:3-4). God makes it crystal clear that no gods of any shape or size can be put before him Him . God continues by saying, â€Å"You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God† (Bible, ESV, Ex. 20:5). Not only is God saying not to put anythi ng before Him, but He is saying that they shall not bow down or even serve them. Why is God saying this? The reason God said this is because God is a jealous God. But if God is perfect and sinless, then how is He a â€Å"jealous God†? God can be anything that He wants to be, but in everything He does, He is completely holy and sinless. God isn’t jealous because of something He lacks, wants, or needs. He is a jealous God when His people give to another thing what ultimately and rightly belongs to Him. The Israelites had a habit of turning to other idols and turning their backs on God, even after He delivered them from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. God was with the Israelites and never failed to show them his His sovereignty, yet they were convinced that God was not enough for them, that they needed more. One can see this almost everywhere in American Society today. People live as though God and the world owe them something; and that everything they have is because of something they did to earn it, that they do not need God to guide their steps because they’re fully capable of leading themselves. In the New Testament, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:7, â€Å"What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?† (Bible, ESV, 1 Corinthians 4:7). Nothing people have is by their own doing, but by God’s doing. Both the Israelites and America today can be compared to one another because they both tend to fall into worshipping the creations over the Creator. Idols always come back to the prioritized flesh of the individual. Though Israelite society and American society can relate in many ways, they can also differ in many ways. One can see the differences in their chosen idols. Both societies idols revolve around the flesh and not God, but the Israelites portrayed theirs through the golden calf that they made with their melted rings and earrings. When God sees the Israelites have made an idol and worshipped it for His original works, God spoke to Moses saying, â€Å"Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them† (Bible, ESV, Ex. 32:7-8). The biggest take away from this verse is that idols pull people away from the path that God has set for them, and they pull them away quickly. The Israelites took the exact words of God and put them in the mouth of their golden calf, which shows that not only do idols pull people away from God’s path , but they blind people from seeing a nd hearing what only God can do and say. A lot of people in American Society don’t exactly make golden calves to worship over God, but the same type of worship can be seen in the way that one lives their daily life. A very big idol seen today is popularity and desiring the approval of others and wanting that acceptance and worshipping it. This is also known as people pleasing, which can be seen as, people serving; and when one is serving anyone or anything over God, he or she is breaking Gods commandment of not bowing down or serving any other god (Bible, Ex. 20:5). In American society today, the approval of others can be seen as the golden calf that the Israelites worshipped. Society today gives glory not only to the approval of others, but also to the seemingly innocent things, such as cell phones and any electronic devices. Though these devices can make life simpler and more convenient, without a healthy amount of accountability, devices can not only be an idol, but give you the images and freedom to have even more idols all within one. These other idols can range from innocent things such as games, videos, and music, which are all good things in themselves but too much of anything is bad if it is put before God, and even the innocent things, if abused, can become extremely corrupting. Idolatry is a serious matter. It’s very dangerous and can come in all shapes and sizes, and once idolatry becomes a struggle, it will always remain a struggle. One can understand the seriousness of idolatry by just looking at the Israelites in Exodus 32. They watched as the Lord delivered them from 400 years of slavery, they walked on dry ground through the sea that the Lord divided for them, they watched bread fall from the sky because God knew they were hungry, they even drank water from a rock and yet, they still thought that wasn’t enough for them. Their idols could never do what God had done for them but they still ran to what was only temporary. That’s where society today can look back and gain wisdom. Will this world ever be stripped of its idols? No, not until the Lord comes back. Will idols and false gods try leading people away from Gods path? Yes. Can one fight off these idols alone? No, but God can. That’s where these idols and false gods fall short. A false god who could deliver, would not be created by man who couldn’t deliver himself. For the Israelites, that golden calf could not split the sea for them to walk through. For American Society today, the approval of others cannot provide satisf action because the worth of one’s self doesn’t belong to anyone but God. Humans are not big enough or strong enough to tear down these idols, but God is and He has already overcome them, people have just built their idols so tall that they cannot see God for who He really is. People need to realize that only God is enough for them. Nothing or no one can take the place of God in one’s life. True and genuine worship is not viewing God as the one who gives rewards, but viewing God as the Reward. It’s not about what life can give but about what God has already given. Putting these corrupting idols away will require hard work and a lot of sacrifices, maybe even really hard sacrifices such as, relationships, hobbies, the amount of time spent on devices, physical satisfaction, and even friendships. But remember that God sacrificed His own Son so that the people that He loved could have a future and have the freedom to worship the one true God. In order to gain God and his His guidance, one must lose themselves, and their own desires. This may hurt, but God is enough, and He will always be worth losing what was only ever temporary. Works Cited Hooper, Jodi. â€Å"God Gives the Ten Commandments† https://bible.org/seriespage/7-god-gives-ten-commandments-exodus-20-deuteronomy-5 Published 29 June, 2012 Deffinbaugh, Bob. â€Å"Israel’s Worship’ https://bible.org/seriespage/14-israel-s-worship-exodus-201-7 Published 13 May, 2004 ESV Bible. ESV, Crossway, 2016.