In this day and age, there is a prevalent concern about aging population in some nations. In my opinion, this is a decidedly negative phenomenon for economic development despite its societal benefits.
On the one hand, the increased percentage of older population is advantageous for certain businesses and community. To commence with, some enterprises can make use of this trend to improve and distribute their goods as older people who are fastidious about what suitable things to pay for always set the quality of products as a main concern. For instance, healthcare services including insurance or medical equipments need to improve their goods to meet old consumers’ demand to achieve high profits. Furthermore, elderly people can make a positive contribution to the community by taking part in community services and volunteer work. Because senior citizens are not full-time employed, they are able to devote themselves to community and government projects like providing shelter and food for the underprivileged after they are retired.
On the other hand, aging population is alarming situation due to its disadvantages for economic growth and national budget. To begin with, an aging population could lead to a shortage of workers in certain vital sectors which potentially make great profits such as technology or computer science since these sectors require innovation and creativity which seem to be more difficult for the elderly to catch up with. As a result, a smaller working population would cause stagnation for the growth of the economy. This issue is even exacerbated with respect to national budget since elderly people cannot earn a living by themselves. Social welfare is then a drain on public spending, putting heavy pressure on national budget as the government will need to allocate more resources to elderly care, which will leave little budget for other areas.
In conclusion, although the steadily increasing percentage of the older prompts the development of particular companies and community, there are more pressure put on the economy and the government.