It is expected that in the future old people are going to outnumber young people in many

countries.  Do you feel this is a positive or negative development?

In many parts of the world, the ratio of older people to younger people is swelling.  Although an
ageing population does pose a few benefits, it is felt that this trend is more negative than
positive in nature.  This will be shown by looking at how a large elderly populace strains a
society’s public health resources and deters a country’s younger members from having children
of their own.

For one, the aged require extra attention from a country’s public health services, and this can
put pressure on an economy.  For example, ageing Canadians increasingly depend on free
public health care that is funded by taxpayers.  As the number of elderly Canadians increases,
financing their medical needs is expected to put immense stress on the Canadian economy. 
Thus, this example makes it clear that growing numbers of old people in a society is a negative
phenomenon.

In addition to this, younger people are often deterred from having children of their own when
they are faced with the burden of caring for an elderly family member.  In Japan, for example,
fertility rates stagnated during the twentieth century in part due to the load many families had
to bear in looking after older relatives.  This example illustrates the link that exists between
larger numbers of elderly people and reduced birthrates.  As lower birthrates are typically
unhealthy for a country, it is obvious that the trend of ageing populations is not a positive one.

As the above evidence shows, there are many drawbacks to nations with heavy weightings of
old people.  Despite this, it is assumed that little can be done to counter this development.