"The most serious impact of the population decline is a weakened defence force." How far do you agree? Explain.
Definition of weighing phrase - serious impact = damaging to Singapore's survival and future.
Factor 3: Serious impact 3 that affects Singapore's survival and future
An ageing population -->A population where the proportion of elderly people is greater than young people--> In Singapore there are increasingly more elderly people-->fewer young people below 65 years who are economically productive--> There are fewer younger people supporting the older economically unproductive people in each family and across the nation.
An ageing population -->A population where the proportion of elderly people is greater than young people--> In Singapore there are increasingly more elderly people-->fewer young people below 65 years who are economically productive--> There are fewer younger people supporting the older economically unproductive people in each family and across the nation.
In each family-->there are fewer children looking after 2 elderly parents. E.g. in a 1 child family, that 1 child must support 2 elderly parents --> Financial strain on the younger person as he has to care for the financial, medical and other needs of his parents who may be dependent on him/her.
At the national level, with fewer younger people--> government collects lesser and lesser tax such as income tax since there are fewer and fewer young people who are employed--> the elderly and mostly retired and do not pay income tax anymore --> since less tax is collected--> govt. has less money to spend on national needs like defence, education and healthcare --> the quality of these public services will fall--> overall quality of life in Singapore will deteriorate --> Singapore will become a backward nation.
2 comments:
These 4 serious consequences of an ageing population will have an impact on Singapore in a negative manner. In this essay, serious is defined as damaging to Singapore’s survival and future.
Loss of competitiveness in Singapore
-multi-national companies such as Nike and Adidas need talented people of all ages
-however with a decline in population, it means that Singapore is lacked of sufficient workers who are young and capable.
-thus positions in companies cannot be fully occupied.
-older workers tend to be less productive and have health related issues.
-as a result, these MNCs would find it difficult and perhaps more expensive to recruit Singaporeans compared to the huge labor market in countries such as china. Singapore would also be less attractive because of its smaller consumer market. Thus, they may leave Singapore in order to continue their business operation.
- Singaporeans employed by MNCs will lose their jobs
-reduction in quality of life Singapore becomes a poor nationsurvival and independence is threatened.
A weakened defence force
-a lack of young men who are physically fit enough to offer credible defence against an enemy
-potential enemy may feel that Singapore is a vulnerable target and may decide to invade us
-this will in turn discourages political investors and in serious cases, force existing investors to pull out of the country.
-Singapore may cease to become a nation and will suffered as an occupied country
-thus, our survival and independence is threatened.
Increased strain on working population
-ageing populationthe proportion of elderly people is greater than young people
-as a result, Singapore will have increasingly more elderly people but fewer young people(below 65 years) who are economically productive.
-fewer younger people will have to support the older economically unproductive people in each family and the whole nation
-in each family, there are fewer children looking after the elderlyfinancial strain on the younger person as he has to care for all aspects of his parent who are dependent on him
-with fewer people, government will collect lesser and lesser tax since fewer and fewer people are employed, this excludes the elderly since they have retired from the workforce.
-government has less money to spend on national needs like defence, education and healthcarequality of public services will falloverall quality of life will deteriorateSingapore will become a backward nationour survival and independence will be threatened
Increase demand for healthcare and nursing needs for the elderly
-due to the ageing population in Singapore, there is a large proportion of elderly people than young people
-elderly people are more prone to have health related problems or illness at an older age
-thus with more elderly people in our population, the government will have to take into account for them and spent more resources and money on providing them with proper healthcare and nursing needs.
-however, our resources are finite which means it is limited, when the money and resources being spent on only the aspect of healthcare increases, there will be lesser money resources left available to improve on other important aspects of the nation such as defence, housing and education.
-if all these areas are neglected, sooner or later the nation will not be able to progress well enough and the quality of people’s life will deteriorateSingapore will become a backward nation our survival and independence will be threatened
The most serious consequence is the one that will cause the greatest damage to Singapore’s survival and future. Thus, the most serious consequence is the increased demand for healthcare services. If there is an ageing population with more elderly than young people, more resources will have to be spent on providing healthcare and nursing needs for the elderly. Since our resources are limited, when more is spent on healthcare, there will be less left for improving on the aspects of housing, education and defence. Thus Singapore will become a backward country and this will threatened our survival and future as we will be more vulnerable without a strong defence force and without sufficient resources to prepare for future crisis. However, all the other consequences are not as serious as they bring negative impacts to a certain extent. Loss of competitiveness will not threaten our survival and future that much as without the MNCs, Singapore will still be able to function well internally. All the other factors can still be overcome, but the increased demand for healthcare services cannot as our resources have already been used, it cannot be reverse back. Thus, the most serious consequence is the increased demand for healthcare services.
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