Examine the impacts of aging populations.

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Impacts of an Aging Population
An aging population is an occurrence that happens when the median age of people in a certain country rises due to an increase in life expectancy or else a decrease in fertility rate. Indeed life expectancy has risen significantly in the twentieth century especially in the developed countries. On the other hand, a decrease in birth rates with an increase in life expectancy has led to many people worrying about the effects of an aging population. Indeed, in this essay, we are going to examine the impacts of an aging population.
One of the impacts of an aging population is that it will lead to a rise in the dependency ratio. This situation means that the aging population will highly depend on the younger population to meet their day to day needs. Indeed with an expanding life expectancy, there will be a rise in the aging population claiming pension benefits while fewer people will be working and paying income tax (Morley& John, 392-397). Therefore, for the government to pay the pension benefits, it will be required to raise their tax rates on the declining working population. Indeed, this event may lead to a decrease in the disposable income of the working force and also they may quit their jobs due to heavy taxation.
Another impact of an aging population is that it may cause a rise in government expenditure on providing the required health care on the aging population and also pay their pensions. Indeed the government has to pay the pensions to the elder people who on the other hand pay lower taxes since they are not working.

This impact has been a major burden to many governments leading a large number of unpaid pension schemes to the aging population and also debt issues. Indeed, this has been caused due to high spending rates in the elderly population and low income from taxes.
Another impact of an increasing aging population is that it may lead to a shortage of the working population. The reason behind this is that most old people are not physically fit and therefore they aren’t able to provide the required labor in the economy. Indeed, due to a shortage in the working population, people may decide to increase their wages and this event may lead to a wage inflation. On the other hand, firms may encourage people to enter the labor market by providing better wages (Bell& Jordana, n.d).
An aging population may also lead to the decline in economic growth. Economic growth refers to the capability in which a country can produce goods and services. Indeed, an increased savings on pensions may lead to the reduction of investments which in return leads to a decrease in economic growth. This situation means that if the aging population is putting more of its income into pension funds, it may result in a decline of the savings required to conduct productive investment. This event will indeed lead to a decline in economic growth.
In conclusion, an aging population has major impacts indeed especially in modernized countries such as the United States and Japan. It has indeed led to an expansion in the dependency ratio and also a shortage in the working population. It has also led to an expansion in the way the government spends its income and also a decline in the economic growth. These facts show that an aging population has more negative impacts than positive ones.
Work Cited
Bell, Jordana T., et al. “Epigenome-wide scans identify differentially methylated regions for age and age-related phenotypes in a healthy aging population.” PLoS Genet 8.4 (2012): e1002629.
Morley, John E., et al. “Frailty consensus: a call to action.” Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 14.6 (2013): 392-397.