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Introduction
Due to the exponential growth of the population experienced in the 20th century, the number of people worldwide is at its historical peak. Currently, the world population has almost reached 8 billion people, but due to multiple governments actions, the growth is predicted to slow down. Due to this trend, the near future will leave the world with a very high percentage of older people over the age of 65, which leads to several sociology issues emerging. How will this affect the workforce, demand, health care, and even social values is a question tackling nearly every social science principle? This paper will identify the issues mentioned above and analyze their relation to sociology.
Applying Social Science
The growing percentage of older adults in every part of the world is a problem for the near future, and preparing for it today is a relevant sociology question. According to a study by Francesco Marcellati, (2020) in the last decade, the percentage of people over the age of 65 in Southern Europe has increased by 7%. By the year 2050, the total number will be around 30%, which means for the first time in history, the percent of elders will be higher than the percentage of children under the age of 5. The reasons for this trend are a decrease in mortality due to advancements in medicine and a decline in fertility due to the lack of need for a big family. Another contribution is made by globalization, as immigrants usually tend to be young. The social principles that touch upon this issue are social institutions, such as healthcare and pension programs, and social beliefs and values, such as care for the elderly within a family.
Social institutions that are supposed to take care of the aging issue encounter a wide span of problems that have yet to find a solution. The predominant point of concern for the global economy is a shortage of labor and unsustainable costs of social security systems (Marcaletti et al., 2020). To manage this occurring issue, multiple international assemblies occurred after 1982 to formulate plans on dealing with aging. Some countries like Russia have increased the retirement age for both men and women. Others, like Japan, have entirely cut the pension fund and started promoting a social norm of children caring for their older family members. This led to some changes in the sociological principle of beliefs and values. Most Asian countries faced an increased level of respect towards older people. Moreover, donating money to homes for the elderly and retirement programs became one of the most respectable and popular types of charity.
Conclusion
Increasing the retirement age or removing pension funding entirely comes with an adverse reaction from the population, and many countries cannot afford such measures. Instead, many governments with highly developed infrastructure have taken two routes in changing social norms regarding older people. One course is increasing taxes to support social security and pension funds. This is relevant for countries with high emigration rates and less developed economies. More developed countries instead promote children taking full care of their parents because there retired people have more savings, and the income is much higher for the young workforce. In any case, population growth predictions change every couple of years, and choosing the correct way to deal with the deriving issues will continue to be a relevant question for the years to come.
Reference
Marcaletti, F., Iñiguez, B. T., & Garavaglia, E. (2020). Ageing in Southern Europe. Emerging perspectives and challenges for sociology. Revista Española de Sociologia, 29(1), 117-135. Web.
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