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发表于 2012-10-15 18:33:31
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来自： INNA
今天早上要坐4小时长途大巴。好在车上有wifi。此文在车上草草写就，见笑了。因为没有时间限制，实际考试时可能写不了这么长。
In the future, it is expected that there will be more elderly people than young people. Is this a positive or negative development?
With the rise of life expectancy and the drop in birth rate, Europe and Japan already have aged populations. China is headed in the same direction. The received wisdom is that an aging population represents an ominous trend and poses unique challenges to societies where it is happening. I think characterizing the trend as either positive or negative is counterproductive and distracts us from finding real solutions.
First of all, an aging population does have its accompanying problems. Research shows that young people are more willing to make risky investments that have a potential for a great gain. Young people are also motivated to reinvest in their own human capital; they learn new things and develop new skills when they perceive the new knowledge and new skills as useful in an evolving society. Elderly people, on the other hand, are conservative in investment and are reluctant to reinvest in their own human capital because the return on investment does not justify the cost as they near the retirement age. As a result, an economy with more young people is more innovative, more dynamic, and more adaptive. Moreover, retired elderly people are net consumers of resources. They can become overly burdensome for the social welfare system and the younger generations.
The problems, however, should not discourage us from finding solutions. Our social policies regarding retirement age were made in an age when people rarely lived into their 70s. As people live longer and longer, these policies need to adapt, too. Elderly people should be encouraged to postpone their retirement plans. Means-testing retirement benefits is another way of alleviating the burden on the social welfare system we need to consider.
Elderly people can also have beneficial influences on the society that people do not generally think about. More elderly people mean a bigger market for cures for hitherto intractable diseases that afflict elderly people more often, such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. With more elderly people having ready cash to spend, pharmaceutical companies will be incentivized to invest more in looking for cures for these diseases. And just as a side note, it has been suggested that elderly people can contribute to increased gender equality by being more actively engaged in the upbringing of their grandchildren, thus making it possible for working mothers to devote more of their time to their careers.
To sum up, the fact that there will be more elderly people does pose real challenges. But we need not be discouraged and cannot shy away from trying to find solutions. Elderly people deserve our support and gratitude with a lifetime of contribution to the society behind them. And who knows, we may have the elderly people to thank for the cure for cancer someday.
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发表于 2012-10-13 14:17:51
