In recent years, life expectancy has increased worldwide due to advanced medicine, technologies and the surge of new treatments for life-threatening diseases. Does longer life-expectancy only have positive consequences? Or can it also have a negative impact on younger generations or governments involved?
On one hand, from a general point of view, an increasing lifespan obviously can only provide benefits. Most large families enjoy spending time with their elders, not only can grandchildren get wisdom from their grandparents, but also their parents. Several generations living at the same time can have great social and cultural effects on society. Elderly people are also the only direct source for history, supposing life expectancy will keep increasing, society will reach a point where seniors will teach history based on personal experiences which would be a significant advance in humanity’s social and cultural development.
Having an older population also means more need for retirement homes and assisted living, which on one side can be a great job opportunity for the young generations seeking work experience. However, on the other hand, living longer doesn’t always mean living in a happy, healthy way, although medicine and treatments can relieve some pain, at some point, depression can occur. What is more, not every family has resources for retirement homes which can lead to elderly people becoming a burden to the family.
Unless the government takes the matter into their own hands and makes retirement homes free of charge and still with appreciable quality, living in a country with an increased life expectancy can drown the youngest generation in taxes that are purposed for the huge percentage of population living off retirement paychecks.
In conclusion, while an increased life expectancy has both significant advantages and disadvantages, its overall impact only depends on how the matter is managed by both society and governmental institutions.