In many countries, the proportion of older people is steadily increasing. Does this trend have positive or negative effects on society?

Article 1

The demographic shifts will have a huge impact on almost every aspect of public life. And this has become a serious concern to many countries. Personally, i believe the detrimental effect of the challenge outweighs the positive effect.

Advocates in favour of this phenomenon indicate that older people can provide more valuable experiences and skills to the communities. For example, people find elders are good at teaching and consulting because of their highly skilled communication skills and sound academic knowledge. Thus, it is often the case that most of the primary schools tend to recruit aged employees for a better teaching quality. Apart from that, the ageing population leads to the extension of working life, thereby reducing the demand for pensions

On the other hand, however, it is the negative influence of this social phenomenon that worries people the most. Firstly, the demographic shift is believed to have a strong correlation with the rising unemployment figures. With the number of elders grows, which promotes the country to raise the statutory retirement age. Thus, an increasing number of young graduates are less likely to seek unemployment. Secondly, another problem associated with an ageing society is that health care costs will escalate, imposing a burden on tax payers. For instance, the government is required to allocate more budgets for age-care centre facilities, and qualified workers.

In brief, the considerable extension of life expectancy has been regarded as the major contributing factor to unemployment and ever-increased health care expenses. Nevertheless, elders can make efforts to the society through their skills and experiences.

Article 2

In present-day society, there is an increase in the proportion of elderly due to the improved healthcare.Well equipped medical facility extends a person's live, however, the rising number of senior citizens have more negative effects on the society.

It is universally acknowledged that the growth in the proportion of senior citizens brings burden on the governments. In many countries, governments need to spend more money on healthcare system due to the rising needs. Sometimes, this may causes the governments put in less efforts on education or other areas as dozens of money is required on the infrastructure and "old homes". Furthermore, elderly tend to receive pensions every month in many countries. This will causes the young workers feel dissatisfied and strike which lead further financial problems to the governments.

An upward trend of the proportion of elderly brings burden on families too. When there is less youth in a family, the stress level will be increased as he or she have heavy responsibility. In addition, while families have more elderly to care for, less resources will be given to their children. Besides this, countries's work force will be decreased, thus many countries face financial crisis and working adults need to pay more and more taxes until they have enough trouble paying their own basic needs. Further, the age of retirement will extend a few years more.

To sum up, ageing population is an unchangeable trend in contemporary society, thus it is essential for the governments to pinpoint the effective remedies.

Article 3

It is undeniably believed that the developed technology and sufficient welfare have magnificently provided a great chance for having mankind life extended. Combining with the fact that young couples tend not to breed, elderly individuals are now occupying an increasing percentage of the world population. Supported by a number of sociologists and economists, ageing population issue will generate negative impacts on the world such as enlarging the government expenditure and reducing the workforce efficiency. 

First of all, subsidizing senior citizens costs governments and tax-payers massive amount of money. For instance, it was stated by The Economist that pension is now the largest expense of social welfare budget of European governments. Despite the advantages it brings, this amount of expenditure is an insurmountable burden to the government deficit and can therefore, slow down the growth of national economy. Hence, a high proportion of ageing population can do harm to already harsh national economy, especially during the recent economic recession in Europe. Additionally, ageing population can also reduce the efficiency of labour force. 

Going into details, according to The Economist, one senior citizen needs two or more juniors to be taken care of, particularly the sick. As a result, looking after ageing people expends a great amount of labour forces which could otherwise profit companies and governments. Therefore, provided that labour force could be emancipated from caring the elderly, a more efficient and productive society could thereby created. 

To sum up, it is evident that the positive effects of high aged ratio are more in comparison of its negative impacts.