Band 6+: Some believe that younger family members should be legally responsible for supporting older family members when they become physically, mentally and financially unable to look after themselves. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Young people should be legally responsible to look after their elderly people, as they are no longer physically, mentally, or financially able to look after themselves. While older people deserve support from young people, forcing legal responsibility may place an unreasonable burden on young adults.

Old people deserve support from their young family members. This is because old people invested their whole life on them, with providing everything – housing, studing fees, food. It is now reasonable to shift responsibility to young people to look after their elderly family members. A cultural example might be in asian societies, where adult children support their elderly parents both financially and mentally.

However, there are shortcomings of this idea. Forcing young people to take the legal responsibility for their older members makes it complicated, since young people might be out of a job. Moreover, some adult children struggle to put food on the table and look after their children. Forcing them to take the legal responsibility yields no results, instead making it worse for young people who tries to be financially independent.

A better approach is to create a hybrid responsibility. While the financial responsibility will be taken by the government, the young members can take the emotional responsibility to take care of their older family members. The government provides free medical care, pensions, and charding with no taxes. On the other hand, the young children support emotionally their older parents by looking after them, be a shoulder to cry on. As a result, both sides are fully supported, where young members stay financially independent and older members, who are taken care of.

In conclusion, although older family members deserve support from young members, shifting the responsibilities legally makes it complicated, as some of them may be unemployed, or struggle to put food on the table. A better approach is to create a hybrid responsibility – where the government provides financial support, and young members mental support.