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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: How much of a problem will old people be on Chinese society?
How will the case of China's aging population compare to that of Japan, for instance, or the US with its baby boomers?
Will it be disastrous, or great for the young generation, who'll have more chances of making it big?
Would the government ever raise the retirement age?
12 years 1 week ago in Business & Jobs - China
I dont think it bodes well. China will have a lot of struggling couples taking care of elderly parents while trying to raise a Child of their own (two people taking care of five). Children and the elderly, while sentimentally precious, do tend to be quite "expensive".
They may indeed have to raise the retirement age in order to offset many of the financial difficulties that families will be facing in the future.
First of all allowing people to retire at 50 or 55 isnt a great long-term plan for any society. People are living longer these days. Why not raise the retirement age to 65. Most people can still function pretty good at this age. Yeah they are some people who with various health needs maybe can not do it, for them can make the exception. The other problem I see is the one child policy which is disabeling the available work force. You have more kids you have more kids who will grow up as entreprenuers, leaders, inventors, develop sollutions to solve societies problems. That is crucial. Also, I think its better to let people invest their own money and do what they want with it. Instead of having a goverment agency force people to pay into a system where there money is usually wasted and abused. Let people make the decison how to invest their money. China dont need the social security or social welfare program. They have proven to the rest of the world they dont need this. Why? because the kids are taught at a very young age to take care of their parents when they get older because they know they cant depend on the the social entitlement programs of the government.
As terrible as it sounds, old people in China (or their passing more accurately) should free up many aspects of Chinese society, while also having some negative effects.
I read some report that said 20 or so years from now, as China's elderly population thins out, the overall population will beginning to actually decrease. This should help alleviate many current issues related to overpopulation. However, a drop in the population will also mean a drop in the labor force, which will probably affect China's manufacturing role. Hopefully there are robots doing everything by then and China's moved on to a consumer economy.
As far as pensions and the elderly population go, in the short run I think China is in as much trouble as the US.
Scandinavian:
The thing about having robots replace the workforce. You can put a robot anywhere in the world, it will do it's job at the same cost. China's workforce has up until some years ago been cheaper that using automated production processes.