With the development of medical care, people are living longer, and their life expectancy is rising. While the conservation of cultures worldwide is the main advantage of this trend, overpopulation is the primary disadvantage.
The major benefit of people’s increased lifespan is the opportunity for them to preserve their customs and traditions. If people live longer, the elderly can pass on their culture to the youth. Many extinctions of languages, traditions, or customs were due to the inability of the old to teach their offspring to inherit their cultural values. This is because they lived shorter life and their progeny could not be taught about their family’s values. However, given a longer life expectancy, they might mentor their grandchildren not to abandon the legacies of their families. This is important since it contributes to cultural diversity and prevents the extinction of a country or a family’s values. Take Uzbekistan as an example. The country nearly lost all of its cultural and traditional values in the past, but with longer lifespans and help from the old, it managed to save its culture.
Despite this, the drawbacks are equally pronounced. One main demerit of this trend is the rising overcrowding. Given the longevity of people’s lives, the world can be overcrowded, as old age is one of the primary causes of death. The population of the world may continue to breed and increase in numbers, which inevitably leads to overpopulation. This can be detrimental to a certain extent, especially because a lack of resources is a subsequent outcome. In turn, the lack of resources may result in increased poverty among ordinary citizens, taking a toll on the economy of a country. India serves as a great example. As the country possesses one of the highest positions in medicine, its population grows rapidly, compromising the number of available necessities for the public.
In conclusion, the highs of people living longer include the preservation of cultures by the elderly, while the lows are overcrowding, followed by damage to the economy.